My first job out of college took me back to a place I swore I'd never live again: Washington, DC. I had interned there one summer and enjoyed it, but certainly didn't catch the "Potomac fever" as many often did. But one year later, the job I wanted to launch my career required I move back to the east coast; I packed a UHaul and my Ford Focus and began my career on 1301 Pennsylvania Ave.
I remember rinsing out the office coffee pot at the end of a really bad day, thinking to myself, "I did not go to Purdue University for four years and earn a degree to do this."
After a few minutes of scrubbing the pot in my heels and then wiping down the countertops, I remember thinking: "Your father would absolutely kill you if he knew those words were going through your head right now. You were raised better"
It's funny how sometimes your upbringing can shout at you from the back of your mind when you're 518 miles from anything you've ever known.
And do you know what? The next day was better.
And the day after that was better.
And day, after day, I learned to be grateful for discomfort on the long days because it made the good days that much better. It also proved that I'm capable of anything. Including washing a coffee pot I never poured a cup from. I also learned how to make coffee at my first job.
We expect heated steering wheels and seats.
We no longer drive to a movie store or even a Red Box; we hit "download" and have whatever we want on our living room big screen.
We have thirty pairs of shoes because each feels different on our feet when the temperature swings by ten degrees.
We don't pay attention to landmarks or even keep a map in the console because we can type an address into our phones and be spoon fed step-by-step directions.
We expect our professional careers to be constant climbing and measurements of success because we've studied and worked hard and deserve it.
The truth is that sometimes you have to go into situations understanding that:
Challenging jobs,
college experiences,
buying our not-such-a-dream home, but rather the one we can afford
skipping a vacation,
a lemon of a used car,
or taking the long way
are all things that might not be comfortable, but they will allow us to grow in unforeseeable ways.
Someone asked me recently how I've come up with content for a blog for eight straight years.
Well, sometimes I try to be my own life coach and talk myself off a ledge by typing away on this keyboard.
Because as I type this, our kitchen sink and counter tops are sitting in the yard and will be there over night. A small kitchen project turned a regular Monday into the most Monday-est Monday, ever and this morning I washed breakfast dishes in the 6:00 AM darkness by garden hose while the barn cats watched, smirking.
So, yeah.
My discomfort is not suffering.
It's just a phase of life.
Let's just hope this phase moves fast. I've got big things to do next week and I don't like making eye contact with animals when I'm still in my nightgown.
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