I’ve had a varied career. It has taken me from nonprofits, to healthcare, to the top 25 of the Fortune 500 list, and back again. I’ve gone from finance, to IT, to analytics, and back again.
At the moment, I report directly to a senior executive and my duties and expectations are nearly all-encompassing. I’m the exec’s whatever-needs-to-be-done person.
Ancient Rome was a crowded place. There were all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds and social statuses jostling in the streets. It would have been difficult to make your way through the mass of humanity.
Maybe it’s a new job or even a new career. Perhaps it’s a promotion. It could be a spot in a graduate program or a leading role in a big show.
The details can vary, but the underlying thought remains: I don’t belong here and, worse, everyone will realize it any moment now and I’ll be shunned forever.
It’s called imposter syndrome and while it seems to affect all of us, we internalize it to the point that we believe it affects only us.
I’ve had so many bad job interview experiences. For years, it felt as if every time I went for an interview, I walked out feeling dejected and miserable. There were times when it felt like it would never improve. As someone that is now in the position where I interview others to join my team, I’m empathetic to those that come in looking for an opportunity.
“Having a bad boss isn’t your fault. Staying with one is.”
– Nora Denzel
There are three people I think about virtually every single day:
“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’”
— John Greenleaf Whittier
It was always just a dream.
Everyone knows 2020 was not a typical year. In fact, it was probably the weirdest and most stressful twelve months most of us have ever experienced.
Some of the items I wrote this year were in direct response to what was happening in the world – both in macro and the micro sense – while others could’ve been published any other time.
The biggest change to my writing routine was my output – or lack thereof.
“Always stay a student.”
— Frank Shamrock
The professor opened class with a simple statement.
“I assume everyone has the syllabus and all of the materials.”
Uh, I didn’t. I looked around the room and quickly ascertained that I was the only one. There was no sense in hiding.
I raised my hand to tell him. He wasn’t too annoyed. He simply said, “Open up Canvas and download it now, please.”
I said, “You got it,” but I thought, What the hell is ‘Canvas’?
The weather on the east coast is very hot and unbearably humid. My daughters like to play in the water and chase lightning bugs. We are in the midst of the summer. The calendar is about to flip to August. It sometimes feels normal.
But it’s not a normal summer. We’re all still living under a cloud of uncertainty and fear as an invisible, silent genocidal killer continues to haunt us.
And I haven’t had a complete day off since March 8th.
Is it really going to be 2020?
The Passion of Christopher Pierznik 