Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Goodbye 2009

I don't often write blog posts in response to another blog posts.  And the number of blogs I do read can probably be counted on one hand.  However a recent posting I read got me to thinking and I realized that I probably had enough thoughts & comments about this to warrant a blog posting of my own rather than just posting a few lines in response under the original.

As the author of the previously mentioned posting points out, it's been a rough economic year for everyone.  This has brought some unique challenges and obstacles in my workplace that have probably culminated into a large scary monster of negative feelings & emotions within me that all too often carries over into my personal & family life.  Since my office closed back in May, not only do I not get face time with my co-workers & manager who are going through the same career difficulties (absence of a regular quasi-support group), but I also don't have the commute time between work & home that would be roughly an hour or so to unwind and transition from work to family mode.

One of the quotes from the posting I wanted to comment on was this:
"We didn’t send out Christmas cards this year. We handed out few gifts to neighbors. We didn’t hang lights around our home. We didn’t give as much service as we had planned. Home and auto repairs seemed to drop out of nowhere. Our three oldest kids needed glasses and dental work done.
Nothing major. Just many small expenditures that add up over time during a year when my bonus was slashed."

That's kind of how it was around our house too.  Normally I put up our 12ft tall Christmas tree with a 9ft diameter base in our front room with vaulted ceiling.  This year, I only put up the top half.  It still looked great at 6ft tall with the pre-lit white lights and the decorations my wife & kids put on but it felt like a representation of my Christmas spirit this year like it too was only half there.  Our exterior Christmas lights were never put up, and the smaller tree helped hide the fact that there were a smaller number of presents under the tree this year.

As there were no bonuses or raises handed out this year, what we were able to put under the tree basically came from the income my wife was able to provide with the 5 hours a week she works, commission only, for a small non-profit organization.  While I was thankful for that, at the same time I was left frustrated that I couldn't provide for my family like I wanted to...Like I felt like it was my obligation and responsibility to and regardless of how hard I worked through the challenges of layoffs, furlough time, increased issues of customer escalations and unhappy customers and still raising our customer satisfaction scores, there was no monetary thanks from the company.  (Though they still had funds to acquire a portion of Nortel business solutions.)  So we delay the dental work my wife & I need, see how long we can drive with that annoying blinking light on the dashboard of the car (we had it checked, it's minor & ok), and reschedule some of the plans we had slated for this year.

But after reading the blog post further, it made me reflect back on the year and remember some of the more positive highlights and that it's important to have and show gratitude for some of the more simple pleasures like time spent with family.  I was able to take my family to Disneyland this year for a week.  That was awesome.  I spent a few days at the beach 4 times this year, twice in Seaside, OR and twice in Long Beach, WA.  I made new friends working a temp job first at an event in Seattle and then later in the year at another event in Atlanta.  While it was hot in Atlanta, I enjoyed the rare opportunity to visit there and work with such  a great team of people.  This year we also got an addition to the people in our home in the form of a college exchange student from Hong Kong and she has helped us learn and try new things that we probably otherwise would not have done.  And possibly a blessing I keep overlooking is that while there have been stressful challenges at work, I am thankful I have the opportunity to tackle those challenges rather than the unemployment line and job hunting market.

These are only a few of the things that are unique to me this year that I have to be thankful for.  While I'm glad that 2009 brought these wonderful experiences, I hope that 2010 brings better economic times for everyone.  But until then, I hope I can continue to remember what's truly important and show gratitude for what I do have instead of misery & negative attitude I've been giving off for the focus I've been placing on all the things that just don't go right.

4 comments:

twiddyfam said...

Well said Doug. I think we all need to have more gratitude for what we were able to do and have a positive outlook for 2010, that being said, Happy New Year!!!

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