Starting Over

Add a Comment

2 Comments

Comment by Jessan Dunn Otis on September 3, 2009 at 6:07am

Re-reading my comment below, I realize this morning that, as my husband sometimes says, I'm speaking/writing "in shorthand". In other words, there's a lot left out and a listener/reader might have trouble understanding.

To expand, then - my reference was to when I was conceived - yes, it goes that far back. Fast forward, however, to when I began my "adult working career" as a clerk-typist at Family Service in Providence, RI. My primary responsibilities were to transcribe social worker/client sessions, keep and update client files, answer the telephone and, generally, conduct myself in a "business-like manner." I was 19.

I had started college right after high school. Wrong place, wrong time, (just about) wrong everything. I came home. My parents both said, "I guess this isn't the right time for you to do that. Therefore, you need to go out and get a job." After some speedwriting and typing courses to bring a few skills up to par, resume in hand (I wish I still had a copy of that one), off I went to convince someone to hire this wet-behind-the-ears job-seeker.

All the rest that follows is a series of changes, shifts, (apparently) wrong turns and (virtually) leaping off cliffs, not knowing (exactly) what the result(s) would be.

We all have stories - apparent successes and (clearly) catastrophes that turn us sideways and cause us to doubt our own abilities.

From my experiences I've learned it's not just the "starting over", it's also sharing what I've learned with someone who is in a place where I've been to help them get to their next, "better place".

What say you, please?

Dance on...

Jessan

Comment by Jessan Dunn Otis on August 11, 2008 at 2:10pm

It started 9 months before May 21st of the following year. I cannot count how many "start overs" there have been since. Nevertheless, with each "start" there have been lessons learned - isn't that part of it?

It's not the destination, it's the ....

"To be or not to be. That's not really a question." ~ Jean-Luc Godard

Enjoy this day you make/are given - ciao bello ~ Jessan