40 years

Here I am sitting and writing about a date that was 40 years ago, and the date was September 8, 1986. This is the day when I started my first full-time job and it was for a company that I continued to work for until October 31, 2001. Yes, that seems like a lifetime ago and in some ways, it has been a lifetime ago and it’s been for me most of my working life. When I sit back and think about how things have changed since that date, I know that both the world and I have changed. 

In 1986 after just finishing college, I had no idea what working full time was really going to be like and how your free time is limited because of the basic things that you need to do everyday. Sure, I had gone to college but there were long breaks between classes and if you didn’t want to attend a class on a specific day you didn’t have to. Now, working meant showing up at a specific time each day of the week and then leaving at a specific time. Things sure did change but it was something that I enjoyed, and I know that I learned a lot working at that first company.

Things are so different now compared to when I started working and the use of laptops and cell phones are just a couple of the things that have changed. Overall, the way that we work on is so different, but the job still needs to get done and demands of your time are still here. Now, the means of communicating has really changed and now when you haven’t answered a text message or a voice mail, someone will call you and ask why.

Our free time now is so different, because now we can order online our groceries and meals and they will be delivered to our house without in a lot of cases talking to anyone. For some people their free time is spend scrolling on their mobile device and losing hours watching different things that are posts on social media. Growing up we could only watch a program on the television at a scheduled time and now it’s whenever we want to watch it.

I know that I have changed from being that scared individual that walked into an office to start her first job to someone that now is a partner of a business. Sure, there are times when I wish I could go back to the easier ways of life, but I am enjoying my life as it is and if I hadn’t started working for the company that I did, things might have been very different for me. Forty years really isn’t that long ago when you think about things and sure things that changed and life is different, but I can still look in the mirror and see that person that I was.