Time Capsule

shhh...I think my email is working again.
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I had an interesting experience the other day when I was cleaning out an old email folder at work. This particular folder was an archive of saved emails for the last eight years.

As I scanned email after email, I was literally reliving the last eight years of my life in north Texas. It had notes on congratulations for a promotion, messages of sympathy when my father and later one of my dogs died. It archived numerous emails that tracked an ongoing episode with an unsavory character who never did get his comeuppance.

Bosses and employees died, retired or faded into obscurity. I could see every peak and valley of my career and my personal life. And I discovered that even eight years ago I must've been meant for writing. Buried in the deepest part of the archive, I found several early emails from business associates telling me I was wasting my time here and I should consider writing professionally! I laughed out loud when I found those.

It seems I was the go-to person if anyone needed a letter, article or speech written for them. It was stranger still that I kept those emails. I guess subconsciously, I was thinking about writing even then.

It was a time capsule of my life. And while there were some happy moments, I couldn't help thinking how much heartache occurred during these last eight years. Like a recorded chess match, it detailed where each of my career decisions landed me.

It hasn't been an easy journey since I lived apart from my husband most of that time--and still do. It's made me tougher on some issues and softer on others. I'm less patient with whiners than I used to be, but less critical of people who spit in the wind.

I know what it's like to spit in the wind. You might get wet, but at least you know which way the wind is blowing. Yes, folks, she's practical AND positive!

I don't know what the next eight years will bring me, but I'm ready.

Are you?

Comments

I hoped you saved those emails that said you should quit work and stick with writing.

Someday they'll ask you for your "literary papers" and you can include those emails.

Interesting how they can tell a life story.
Maria Zannini said…
That's what I found so fascinating. Individually, the emails were rather perfunctory missives on day-to-day living. But put them together and you can see an entire human life laid out. It gives me a greater appreciation of the whole.
Sherrill Quinn said…
Maria, isn't it funny how things on our day jobs can inspire or motivate us? I first started writing when a boss of mine told me I couldn't. (In the more generic sense--i.e., human resources people in general can't write.) I decided to prove her wrong.
LOL
Maria Zannini said…
Sherrill: That's the best revenge. You showed them! :o)