Don’t change the channel; this commercial break is a good one!
You know that little frisson – that thrill – of excitement you get when something goes well? The kind where you feel just a little invincible?
It’s been a good month. Why? Nothing huge – just a bunch of little things, but ones that add up to more than the sum of their parts. And it has me feeling pretty positive about life.
Early this month, son #1 was moved back to Ottawa for school. It went smoothly. He’s living in an apartment with friends this year it was only a few days later that he called me to explain how handy the basic tool kit I sent him with had already become. He expressed surprise at how not-handy his roommates are and actually thanked me for making him help our visiting handyman (thanks, Dad Another week later and he’d lined up a part-time job, ensuring he won’t be eating KD and ramen noodles all year long! !). I guess I did something right!
Son# 2 also completed a job interview and is now doing pre-job (paid!) training before hitting the local pool deck as a lifeguard. He’s settling into his final year of high school and has a laser-like focus on post-secondary plans. The job will go part of the way to funding those plans. The two boys are very, very different, but #2 is proving in his own unique way to be just as responsible and dedicated as his brother. I love watching him making this transition.
My daughter is a year or two away from making life decisions, but she’s started her second year of high school with gusto, becoming a member of several clubs with philanthropic giving-back mission. I couldn’t be more proud of her compassionate nature.
So the home front is going well, and that’s no small feat.
On the personal side, I’ve been asked to sit on the board of the Oakville Children’s Choir, which is a new, but exciting challenge for me. I do sit on some industry committees and on the board of Women in Nuclear Canada already, which are professionally fulfilling, but this lets me stretch my wings in the community and give back in some small way – something I’ve been particularly anxious to do more of.
Plans are afoot to feature my blog on a Rotary International website after their they read the post I wrote recently about my exchange year in Turkey. I take a some special – if selfish – pride in that, and have my fingers crossed that it might lead to other interesting things.
On the professional front, the new job I took on a few months ago is starting to come together and I think I’m over the worst of the learning curve. On top of that, I’ve taken some interesting phone calls recently – which is always a confidence booster – even if they don’t lead to anything at the moment.
And earlier this week, I had the simplest of victories, but one that felt really good. I was on the way home from a quick business trip to Montreal where I managed more than just pleasantries with some of my French colleagues (multiple visits in the past few months are just now starting to remove some of the rust from those language skills). On the plane, I managed an entire conversation with a lovely lady who was visiting from Belgium complètement en français. After we realized she was sitting in the wrong seat, but that the nice gentleman who had her seat would sit where she was supposed to have sat, to avoid disrupting her, we covered her tour of Ontario and Quebec, my lack of European travel, religions and politics! I stumbled a bit and I know I didn’t get it all right, but I got the words out. For me, this is the toughest part of another language. Working with words for a living, I like to choose exactly the right ones and usually get stuck thinking too much about grammar and precision. As a result, I rarely manage to spit out the words in time. It may not sound like much, but pushing past that is a little personal triumph and I hope it makes me braver to try again.
I’m not sure what it is about this last accomplishment that has made me giddy with possibility – maybe it was just the tipping point, but for now, at least, I’m feeling pretty great about myself. Long may it last!
And now, back to the regularly scheduled programming of everyday life….
