31: the finale

Well, we made it. A little late, a little older, a little happier and only a few bumps and bruises. I know I didn’t finish this on time like I had hoped, but I got it done and didn’t give up when the month ended. I did the majority of the posts in January so that counts for something, right?

I feel like this is a great quote to end the month with. Or rather, the January challenge with. I want to take a moment to thank everyone who clicked through my Instagram to read the quotes on my site and my apologies for not being nearly as diligent as I should have been last month. This was a great exercise for me though and hopefully I will continue to write more in the future.

Some posts I didn’t say all I wanted to and I really hoped that when I wrote this that I would have issued more apologies to some guys in my past. I know I said that in some past posts as well, but it’s true. I am a lioness – and lions do not lose sleep over the opinions of sheep. What’s in the past maybe really is best left there. That’s one of my biggest struggles : the war between remembering and forgetting.

Nora Ephron sums it up perfectly though, I am the heroine in my life, not the victim. Bad things happen and scenarios don’t go as planned. Every single day though, I get to decide how I am going to handle the situation and if I am going to rise above it or if I am going to allow myself to be a victim.

There are a lot of people who like to play the victim I’ve noticed. So and so was mean to me or I didn’t get a fair shot or whatever you want to say. Life is not fair though, and no one owes you anything (unless is agreed upon in a legally binding document). With that being said, why not look on the bright side? Let me give you a great example. I worked with a guy we’ll call Jim. Jim and I were both on the chat team and life was pretty darn good. Chat was a coveted position and we were both making decent money and didn’t have to talk to customers on the phone.

Eventually our chat team switched from Monday through Friday 9-5:30 to seven days a week, 24 hours a day, give or take. I was moved to Tuesday – Saturday 11:30-8 and Jim was moved to Sunday-Thursday 1-9:30pm. Not a huge difference but it didn’t really phase me, the shift was ok and I took it with a grain of salt. A few months in, all the chat reps were allowed to sit together again. Then the higher ups needed a few people to help out in another position. I wasn’t qualified but Jim and a few others were and there were lots of grumblings of that if they were doing this job then they should get the increase in pay since the team that did that job was paid more. Ahh yes, no one does anything for free to help out. They did not get the requested pay bump so there were more grumblings. Meanwhile, I became an interim lead (basically meaning that I helped with tech issues and lead some team meetings and helped out on the floor instead of taking chats). Long story short, management got tired of Jim’s antics and he quit. Meanwhile, I’m back to working Monday-Friday 10:30-7 and have some exciting prospects in the works.

What’s the moral of this story? That it’s all about how you look at things. You can make a choice. I made the choice to be content and optimistic and Jim decided to complain and say that he was the victim. It really is about your attitude. Every single day you get to make the choice on how you are going to live your life. Why not make it a good one?

xoxo