Hear directly from EMDC the dedicated professionals who are committed to moving Eastern Maine forward. Your comments are welcome--we hope you'll become a part of the conversation!

#2 Being Thankful
By Denise Smith, Career Advisor

During November many of my Facebook  friends took the opportunity to post something they were thankful for everyday. I like that idea, but I’m just not feelin’ the “post-a-day” thing, and I am way too much of a rebel to do it the same month as everyone else does it.  However, I do like the idea of sharing what I appreciate in my life.
 
Starting with work.

Work is something I could spend a lot of time writing about.  It affects my life in so many different ways and those ways ultimately spill over into all parts of my life.  I work with good people, the job is flexible, yada, yada, that’s all great.  But in the end, it is about the people I work with:  the young people I interact with on a daily basis that make my job as satisfying as it is. 

Let’s be clear.  It’s not because I help them.  People automatically assume that my work always puts me in a position where I am “helping” the youth—that I am doing something FOR the poor, pitiful young person who desperately needs SOMETHING from me.   “Denise, you must find your job so fulfilling.  It’s great that you help them.  They must really need you.”  Well……..no.  I’d like to think of it as a partnership. I hope I help them, but they are also helping me. 

People who know me well know that I tend to protect myself from exposure to most of the terrible things in the world.  I stay away from the news for the most part, I don’t expose myself to true life, horrific experiences as a defense mechanism because I just can’t handle even thinking about such things.  I call it living in my “protective bubble.” 

Except when it comes to the young people with whom I work.  They bring me experiences from all over the spectrum and I am able to work through their experiences without feeling as though I am going to burst from the enormity of it.  I listen to them.  Sometimes we cry a little.  Sometimes it’s just me who cries a little.  Some of their experiences are heartbreaking!   But we move forward and through, onward and upward toward the goal. Whatever the goal.

I have learned more about compassion, adversity, strength, and commitment from these young people than I could have learned from any newscast or newspaper, book, television show or magazine article on the planet. 

There is a story behind everyone and how someone is acting RIGHT NOW is defined by his story.  Most of the time, we don’t get to know that person’s story and I try to remind myself of that when some person is acting like a jerk in line at the grocery store.  Or posting inappropriate remarks on Facebook.  Or being mean for no reason.
I have also taken these experiences back and shared them with my children.  Not the stories themselves, but my understanding of how unfair the world is for some people.  Of how luck can simply come down to the placement of a soul.

My job is something I’m thankful for daily.  Even the not so great days.   My work has made me a better person.  Not many people can make that claim.  But I can.