FRESH START 2.0

Thirty-seven years ago, I graduatred from high school and began my journey to someday own my a restaurant. In that time frame I began working for a well known restaurant in Eugene which turned into multiple restaurants and breweries. 

In this time frame I grew up, raised my children, started a new journey of someday working at the University helping kiddos out with finances and life questions. Two and half years I fulfilled that dream and began working at the University of Oregon. In the last two and half years I have continued to help my boss out with different bookkeeping issues, tax filing and miscellaneous. This week he announced to me he has found a buyer for the brewery and he will be out of the restaurant industry. 

I find the news a bit bittersweet. I recollect on my time with them as a time of great happiness and great sadness. They shared with me the birth of my children, the marriage of my children, my divorce, my school journeys and so on. I have met so many wonderful people in this timeframe, from the great public figures in our community to the neighbor who lives in elderly housing and came in several times a week for a meal or beverage. I have watched many employees build their own lives through the employment there and have made great friendships. It is almost like a death to say goodbye, but I knew somehow someday this would come. 

I am doing exactly what I had intended to do, even if by complete accident. Although I work in collections, I communicate with kiddos everyday trying to figure out their finances, advise them on how to navigate their debt with the University. I have been able to give words of encouragement and light to those who seemed to be having some of the hardest struggles I could only imagine. 

Whatever you believe in, God, other entities, I believe that if you wish and want enough, these things will come to pass whether it is obvious or not. It wasn’t obvious to me at first that I was doing what I wanted, helping kiddos navigate through the challenges of finances, but last week it became all to clear. 

A girl came in to settle her debt with the UO holding a piggy bank full of coins, a notebook and a small purse. She may have been 18 years old and she had just lost her father and best friend in the midst of a special course she was taking at the UO. I was able to listen to her, encourage her and give her a sense of hope in what seemed to be a very big dark ugly earth. When she left, she gave me a big hug and thanked me for all the kindness. It was in the midst of this interaction, AHA!!! I am doing exactly what I had put my mind towards.