A year ago today…
Some times I find and old movie theater ticket with a date on it and I marvel at the fact that I know exactly what I was doing on a certain day at a specific time. Today was kinda like that. A year ago today I was laid off from a job i enjoyed – mostly.
On a Tuesday at around 9:30am I was called into a conference room and let go. Suddenly the co-worker I saw walking down the hall crying made sense. I didn’t cry, in fact my first thought was disappointment at not being able to go to the Christmas party. It’s not that losing the job wasn’t a big deal and I don’t mean to seem cavalier – I really liked my job, co-workers and my paycheck but I guess by time your getting called into a conference room to be laid off you realize there’s not a whole lot you can do about it – especially when the layoff has nothing to do with merit and everything to do with a crappy economy. So instead of being upset I tried to find the opportunity in the situation.
It’s been a year now and I wouldn’t say that I’ve “arrived” at any great position in life, but I’ve done some good stuff in that time. In April I became a finalist in Temple’s Be Your Own Boss Bowl – a business plan writing competition. I was 1 of 10 finalists out of over 112 entries. Not bad, right? Then I got mentioned in Go Magazine – pretty sweet, huh? And then I started designing jewelry and putting it out as Masters of None – the business I wrote about for the competition. Then I got mentioned on Philebrity. As of yesterday, I’ve sold out of one style of jewelry and my work is in three local stores.
Still, there’s soooo much more I feel I could/should have done with the time I’ve had. And it feels like a super long road before my business actually feels like a “real” business. In the new year I’ve got new and different jewelry coming as well as home goods like coasters, clocks and even personal goods like wallets and bags so keep checking back! I have no idea what it’ll be like a year from now but hopefully I’ll be in a position to really say “THIS is what I do for a living” in reference to my company/business instead of asking “can I do this for a living?”