(Listen to this post.)
I try not to make my blog posts too personal. And I try to make sure that there’s a point. Something that people will care about. Because of that, I have been stuck, and the words elusive. The only reason for this that I can think of is that if it’s not personal to me, I don’t really care.
So I’m breaking my own rule and I’m going to share more than I normally would on this blog. This blog is about communications, yes, because that is where my professional interest lies. But this blog is also about transitions and that is something I’m all too familiar with – for better or for worse.
I’m back in Oregon and working on the campus where I graduated from almost two years ago. The professional transition was not that tough. I’m working in a position that I love. I’m doing something that will help people live productive and successful lives. I’m proud of that.
And after being gone for a year and returning to the community that I grew up in, I’ve discovered that nearly all of my friends have moved on. Moved away. And I have to start over again building a life for myself without the help of new classes every three months with new faces and new groups and friends of friends… I see people making these connections every day in my current job. And though these people are my peers from an age standard, I am still on the fringe and it would be unprofessional to blur that line.
At the same time, I want to warn college students about what is to come. I want to tell them that their coworkers after college won’t necessarily (and shouldn’t necessarily) be their peers – their friends. A separation of personal and professional, to a certain degree, is important. I want to tell them that the social transition is difficult, especially if close, personal friendships are as important to them as they are to me. It was easy to make friends on a campus with more than 20,000 students. I haven’t lost touch with these people (thanks to Facebook), but we all have separate lives in various cities and states.
As a result, I am pushing my comfort level to the limit and trying to find ways to make new friends and involve myself in my community. I have always been an advocate for volunteering – it’s good for the soul (and good karma), and I want my volunteering efforts to involve me in activities that I enjoy and allow me to be around others who enjoy similar things. My first attempt is to join a trail work party where I will spend a few hours taking care of hiking trails. Social time, outside, caring for something that others will enjoy. I consider this to be one of my better life choices. Considering the number of poor decisions I’ve made over the past year or so, I feel better already.
Once again, I have rambled without getting to the point. So what is the point? The point is that I am constantly having to adapt my behavior and my attitude in order to overcome change. The more change that I have to adapt to in my life, the less familiar I am with consistency. Consequently, I don’t know how to deal with consistency and instead of letting my life settle into place I am constantly looking for things to change. Maybe it’s to make my life more interesting – because consistency can be boring.
But maybe it’s because I’m afraid of getting stuck in a rut where I’m no longer learning and growing as a person.
This post is not a woe-is-me, what happened to my life pity party. It’s the opposite actually. This is the realization that my life is full of change not only because change is inevitable, but because it keeps life interesting and constantly challenges me to do something more and something different with my life. To push myself. To be a better person. To learn new things all the time. To embrace challenges and learn from failures. And there are a lot of failures…but they build character. Every day there is fear to overcome, and the only way I will ever really fail is if I let that fear rule me.
