Long before Corporate Carly came around, Customer Service Carly was her predecessor. For four years in college, I worked at my local Ace Hardware and learned so much. It wasn't a glamorous job, and I'd often end up covered in paint, or have metal splinters from cutting keys (those are the worst), but we managed to have some fun every shift, and I cherish the memories I have there.
This past weekend, I visited the store for a final time, as it’s closing at the end of this week. Chatting with the owner—who took a chance hiring me with no retail experience all those years ago—I realized how much I learned working there.
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I have always found The Walt Disney Company to be a fascinating company. Not just because I love their content and products (though I do), but because of how it has become a media conglomerate that has so much influence in modern culture. When I heard CEO Robert Iger would be writing a book about leadership lessons learned during his tenure, I was thrilled.
The book lived up to every expectation: Iger is a captivating storyteller. I’m sitting on a storied balcony, listening to the waves crash below me. Sometimes, they are so fierce that it makes my haven shudder. For the past hour, I’ve watched the light begin to wrap around the endless expanse, peeking out from a blanket of clouds as the sun sets.
Who am I, I wonder, to be able to experience such majesty? Down the way, I see a photoshoot happening in these last few moments of golden hour. Watching them frolic in the waves makes me want to run down and join them. But I can’t. When the world shut down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it felt like someone had flipped a light switch—everything changed in an instant.
Similarly, when I broke my foot and was told I’d be off it for at least eight weeks, it felt like a light switch had been flipped, because my life was turned upside down in a moment. In both these cases, I thought the light switch would get flipped back, and life would go back to normal. Spoiler alert—it hasn’t. All my life I’ve wanted one thing: to be “normal.”
Shortly after I was born, I was given the label “exquisitely allergic asthmatic,” then grew up either having to sit out of various activities that my limitations couldn’t handle, or watch people make accommodations to include me. As a kid I’d spend time wondering things like: What would it be like to be able to eat the same snack as everyone? Would I be any good at sports that were outside, like soccer, or softball? But most of all: what would it be like to be normal? How do you tell a story when you’re stuck in the middle of it? When you don’t know the ending?
This is what I call the uncomfortable in-between. It’s a place few people like to talk about because it’s messy, not glamorous, and usually painful. I think we need to talk about it more. Everyone has something they’re struggling with, and by talking about it, we can help each other feel less isolated, and share the burden. The uncomfortable in-between I’m currently facing is my going battle with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), which is keeping me from walking without assistance, which is greatly impacting my day-to-day life. What if this season of feeling stuck is an invitation to abide?
This is the question I’ve been reflecting on recently. Where I feel stuck because I’m not making progress in my own timeline could be an invitation from God to abide in His timeline. I’m an active contributor on LinkedIn and really enjoy the network I’ve built there. But the truth is, I wasn’t always this way. In fact, LinkedIn used to terrify me.
Given its focus as a professional network, I was paralyzed by the fear of saying the wrong thing. If you find yourself facing a similar fear, I’ve outlined the three steps that helped me grow my ability to actively contribute in a meaningful way. In December of 2021, I felt God imprint the word treasure on my heart, and as I listened, Luke 2:19 came to mind: "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."
With that in mind, I entered 2022 determined to focus on being present and treasuring the big moments I knew were coming. Suffice it to say, this year did not go as planned. But one of the things I do treasure is tapping back into my creative side, and using that as an outlet. Earlier this month, I wrote this poem to align with the Mariners Arts theme of the month: the Gift, and I thought about the gift God had given me this year with his call to treasure the moments. As the year comes to a close, I realize just how much this poem encapsulates my year. A roller coaster of emotions and experiences, but lots of moments to treasure.
Getting to speak at the 2022 Paul Merage School of Business Commencement Celebration at UC Irvine was a true full-circle moment for me because it was actually a commencement speech that introduced me to the program four years ago.
Our previous North America CEO at Experian had been the keynote speaker that year, and I was writing an article about it for a newsletter. While discussing details with a colleague, I joked "Grab me some brochures while you're on campus. I've been thinking about grad school." To my surprise, he stopped what he was doing and proceeded to tell me how amazing the program was, and how many great things he heard about it from other Experian employees. The rest, as they say, is history. I never dreamed that four years later, I'd have the opportunity to be a speaker at my own commencement. |