Recently I’ve heard exciting news for three very deserving and very talented friends. Each, after working and planning and interviewing and working some more, was offered a new job in that exciting way where everyone knows it’s the organization that’s lucky to have gotten them rather than the other way around.
While I celebrate from afar with these three wonderful women (alas, all three are based in the midwest), I can’t help but be even just a little bit proud. Not proud in that I had something to do with their success way, because I most certainly didn’t. But proud in that I’m so excited to cheer them on kind of way. Proud in that hell yeah, my friends are that awesome kind of way.
What I’m proudest of in these three is simple, really: I’m so proud they went for it. They wanted it, they worked for it and they went for it. And surprise surprise, in the midst of hoping for it and dreaming about it and wishing for it, it was in going after it that they got it.
At the risk of sailing into meaningless platitude territory, I think we can all agree that life is fleeting. It really is short; it really is unpredictable. But you know what else it is? Each of our own lives is in our own control. As one friend tweeted on the occasion of turning 30:
I think after 30 years, I’ve finally learned that only one person is in control of my life: me.
How great is that?! It’s not about dictating every aspect of every day; that’s impossible and just plain silly to even try. It’s about trusting yourself to make the choices that are best for you and you alone. About chasing after what you really want because you know you can do it (or because you don’t know and need to find out if you can). About knowing that even if you’re not sure there’ll be solid ground for you to stand on, you take the next step, because dammit – you might just grow wings.
As each of the three friends starts their new adventures, I can’t wait to watch them fly.
