Last updated on March 30th, 2021 at 10:52 pm
Sometimes the opportunities to reflect on yourself and the path you’ve chosen in life are given to you on a silver platter. We can spend all our time trying to figure out where we changed and why we are the people we are today, but sometimes the answer will find you, even when you didn’t realize you were looking for it.
You rarely figure out just how much you’ve grown up until someone points out for you.
I ran into a former manager of mine from a couple of years back, and we chatted for a bit about the place where we’d worked, how life has changed, what the future’s looking like—all the usual stuff.
But it was the fact that she was surprised at how far I’ve come in the organization since I was under her wing that made me think. It was a conversation that gave me some insight on how much we can change in such a short amount of time.
2½ years ago, I approached work a lot differently than I do now—I was pretty new, used to short contracts, a bit of a troublemaker and still trying to learn the ropes of this massive organization.
I was cocky, quick-working and definitely the goof of the office—and it cost me when I couldn’t land a job for a while due to my antics.
But now, she saw someone a little more responsible; a little more reliable; a little more able to stand on my own two feet.
We change in response to the challenges that pop up in our life—just because we might not be the right fit for something at one time doesn’t mean that we won’t be the right fit at another time. It’s much like an approach we should take to life—simply because we’re not good at something now doesn’t mean that we won’t be a pro at it later—you just have to be open to the changes that can be made possible for you!
Life changes are hard to deal with and hard to accept—but growing up is something we simply cannot avoid. We learn many lessons, walk many paths and fight many battles to become the people we need to be.
The funny thing is that so many of us try to avoid growing up as much as possible. We use creams to avoid the signs of aging, dye our hair, lament the days of youth we can never reclaim and rarely like what we see in the mirror. We forget that we always wanted to be older back when we were kids so that we could be free to do whatever we wanted!
I guess part of growing up is realizing that the grass is always greener on the other side.
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