5 Years Later and I'm Still at It

I can already tell the days are getting shorter....The sun was barely peeking over the clouds as I was driving to work this morning.  It made it a bit harder to get out of bed this morning, but it was very nice to look at on my way in.

Last week I bought my 5th desk calendar because as of today I have officially been at my job for 5 years.  My oh my where has the time gone.  More frighteningly, have I really been OUT of college for 5 years?!  Yikes! Yes it's true.

I've had this same style calendar for 5 years...it's pretty and makes me smile =)

I don't talk a lot about my job on here, but yes I do have one that does not include me sitting on the couch at home with a laptop on my lap in some running shorts and a t-shirt, except for when there is a small electrical fire in the building which causes it to be shut down for 2 days and that was an extremely rare occurrence, but it's happened before. I work for the Alabama Department of Public Health, and no I am not a social worker OR a nurse, no I don't know your friend's cousin who works at the health department 4 counties away, and I do NOT do the restaurant score inspections.  I work in the state central office where we deal with the programs and grants (not the actual services), I work in Tobacco Prevention and Control, specifically with the youth programs. I spend a lot of time writing grants and writing reports for grants. After 5 years of this, I feel like I know what's going on (most of the time).  I would love to say that I was ready to go from day one but I wasn't.  I was scared out of my mind of messing up and remember being so completely overwhelmed my first few months [I WAS only 22 and the only other jobs I'd had at this point involved me greeting people at the front desk at the YMCA, making sure old men did not drown in the pool at the same Y, and cashiering at a grocery store].

I always knew I wanted a career in the health and wellness field, but I was not sure where I wanted to end up.  After I graduated from undergrad, I had always planned to go to graduate school because that was the next natural step.  I'd already taken the GRE, applied and had been accepted into Health Promotion Program at Auburn.  But after interning at ADPH my last semester at ADPH, I decided that it would not hurt to put in an application.  While interning I met a lady who was also an Huntingdon College alum who was looking to hire someone for a position that summer. I knew it was a long shot since I was 22 years old with no experience and a bachelors degree that had barely come off the press when I put my application in.  Amazingly I got the interview and was offered the job.  I am so thankful that I took it, too.  If I had gone on to graduate school I would have graduation with my Masters in 2009, right as the economy was tanking.  I saw so many of my friends who had graduate degrees who could not find jobs because employers were not hiring at all.  The big guy upstairs clearly knew better than I did.

And my reward for making it through 5 years? (We do reward longevity around here.)  An extra hour and 5 minutes of leave each pay period....woop woop!  Don't hate....that translates to an extra 5 days off each year....hello extra vacay time!  I am truly blessed to have a good job and have made some wonderful
friends in the process.

Here's to the next 5 years and beyond!