What a difference a year makes.

This time last year, I was unemployed after being fired for the first time in my life.

This time last year, I wasn’t sure who would ever want to hire me, considering the fact that I couldn’t really use my former employer of nearly 3 years as a reference.

This time last year, I had been almost constantly sick for about 2 years. Numerous trips to the doctor, a head CT scan, and a series of allergy testing revealed no answers as to why I kept getting sick.

But…that was last year.

Today, I am just 3 weeks away from my 1 year anniversary with my current employer.

Today, it has been 1 year and nearly 3 months since the last time I got sick. Incidentally, it has been 1 year and 2 1/2 months since I left my former place of employment. Coincidence?

And finally…

Today, I was called in to my boss’ office for what I thought was a typical departmental meeting. We call them ‘stand-ups’…mostly, I think, because there aren’t enough chairs in the room, so nearly all of us have to stand up. When I reached the office door, our entire department was already there, including the two team members that do not work on Fridays. They were all standing in a circle facing the door, and when I walked in, they all started to clap and cheer and chant my name. (Now, if only I could get them to stop calling me Jennifer!!!) I was directed to a chair and handed a gift bag. Afraid that someone had mistakenly thought it was my birthday, I asked what the occasion was…only to be told that it was me.

I work for a local college, and our department started more new students this month than any other month in at least the last 3 years, if not longer. This means that the past few weeks have been pretty busy for all of us, especially this week, because classes started, and my boss is of town. In his absence, all of my coworkers got together and decided to do something to show me how much they appreciate everything I’ve done for the team. I got not one, but two cards, signed by everyone, and a very thoughtful gift (I’ll discuss the gift in another blog, another day). It was slightly embarrassing, but oh, so very nice and unexpected. Such a pleasant change from my last place of employment, where you were lucky to get a grunt in your general direction when you did something right!

What a difference a year makes!