I don’t want to be overly sentimental or anything, but today is my last day at my corporate job. When I started here almost four years ago I was freshly laid off from a creative job that I loved but had gotten burned out on. I thought to myself that a corporate job was safe and quiet and clean and would be a nice break from what I have found is the insanity of a creative job. When I started here I honestly had no idea where life would take me. I didn’t know if a corporate career was for me, but I thought it would be nice to try it out and see. After working incredibly ridiculous hours at my last job (one day I worked 22 hours…not even joking) I craved the predictability of a 7:30-4:30 schedule with every weekend off.

But the thing about predictability is…it’s predictable. As I settled into a routine I started trying to figure out if this was what I wanted to do with my life. Sure, I could come to this job, or a job like it every day until I turn 62. I could punch in and out and stare at gray walls and bright white paperwork for 2000 hours a year. Or, I could choose a different path. Do something that makes me happy and look at walls that are whatever colors I want them to be. Until 2011, I really had no idea what that different path could be, but it wasn’t long before I was craving a change.

I don’t believe in God, but I do believe that everything happens for a reason (to some extent). I’ve wondered to myself why didn’t I discover photography when I was 21 and freshly laid off? I had the summer to look for jobs and do not much else. I could have easily picked up a camera and changed my life that summer. Think how much farther I could be in my business by now if I had started in 2008! It’s almost weird that I didn’t figure it out then…my 21st birthday was a week before I accepted the position with my corporate job…John had surprised me at midnight on my birthday with my first digital camera.

I think I could have figured it out then. I could have decided that was what I wanted to do with my life and thrown myself into starting my business. But honestly knowing in my heart that things work out the way they are supposed to, I believe that I needed the time to mature and grow as a person. I really think that what they say about your 20s is true…you change SO MUCH. I have changed by leaps and bounds in the four (almost five omg) years of my 20s so far. I have seen John change so much too. I can’t say that I was ready or not ready to run a business at that point in my life, but I’m the most mature I’ve ever been and I now know that I don’t know everything. I know nothing. And the rest of my life will be spent trying to figure things out. I know this to be true.

Today I will gather up all my things from my desk, box them up with all of the lessons I’ve learned over the past four years, and walk out the door for the last time. This is the end of a chapter and though it’s kind of bittersweet, what’s waiting for me in the next chapter is too exciting to be sad for very long. So much adventure is waiting for me on the other side of the page. So many new lessons to be learned and friends to be made. I love how it feels to know that there are so many endless possibilities ahead of me. So many good things ahead.

What I woke up to this morning…my cat, silly as always and my alarm clock, which I am happy to say I don’t need anymore:)