It's All Over Now

In an interview setting a few months ago, an unnecessarily angry woman was accosting me over...well, my career.  Specifically, the length of stays at each company.  "You're only at a place for a few years, then you leave.  Can we trust you to stay?"  I reiterated that each situation is different: you go in to each job you've ever had with good faith.  Sometimes it stays, but many MORE times it changes.  Said changes aren't created by you.  Either you look around for something new or people look for someone new...and off we go.  She was unconvinced.  

Fast forward a few months and I'm leaving my current role for tastier everything.  Not at the company I reference in the paragraph above, but somewhere else.  We've got a lot of growing to do.  Pleased to be a part of it, part of a place where I'm wanted, and that I can grow doing what I want.  And like so many others, I enter this in good faith.

Sometimes I envy those who have been working at the same place for decades.  Whenever I bring it up, they deflect; doesn't matter the person or even industry, they push it away.  And maybe that's just their life...and my life is to be some sort of entertainment Pepper Rogers (or basketball coach we could easily name, though the ones that move around a lot are always filled with tawdry tales).  At somewhere a few years, off to the next, but not as a rule.  Every once in a while I'm not the one who wanted to leave, but that's how it goes.  Searching for a rainbow.

And yet, of the little advice I can give anyone, I am always amazed and thankful for the jobs I didn't get.  When you're filled with strife 9-5, there are times you'll do just about anything.  After interviews you'll be asked "Does it sound interesting?  Do you want to do it?"  It's often accompanied by a sigh and "Yeah, it sounds like it would be good."  No one is convinced.  Shit, that topic and the places and roles therein would make a good post if anyone would care.

I'm in charge.  That's right.  While I wait for others to "get ready to go" or look out from the hot tub wondering they'll get in, I've realized I have to find what enjoyment I can in going with the flow.  When the enjoyment disappears, deals have to be made.  As the pie is passed, I'll be thankful for yet another deal.  It's what this town taught me.