I wrote at the beginning of the year about how 2015 was going to be a year of change for me. A year to find more balance and to generally be better to myself. With this comes change and change creates transitions. I’m happy to say this year has been full of transitions for me. It has been extremely painful at times but looking back, I’m glad to have gone through it because I feel I’ve come out on the other side as a better person.
One of the biggest changes this year was moving onto a new job after 14 years. I felt like I needed a change and there weren’t many full time positions that interested me, so I took a freelance gig at Walgreens. I was hesitant to do this because as a mother, I need health care coverage and the idea of going freelance with no benefits was scary. However, I was optimistic the exposure to and experience of working at a global corporation would outweigh my fear of paying individual health care costs.
I spent 5 wonderful months at Walgreens, leaving to take on an amazing full time job (with benefits!) at Columbia College Chicago. As I started to prepare for moving on from Walgreens, I began to liken it to spending the summer at camp. You leave home for the unknown, you meet new people from all over who you enjoy being with and you create something special.
I’m almost a month into my new job, but my Walgreens experience has left a permanent mark on me. It has changed the way I look at creative work, made me a better manager and helped me to understand myself better. It was truly an unexpected and magical summer at Camp Walgreens.