Harder, Faster, Stronger

I celebrated my one-year anniversary at work last week.

I started off the day by logging in remotely to our server, troubleshooting it, and rebooting it. I updated our social media sites, then coordinated a change to our website.

I worked in Excel, Word, and Powerpoint, creative software I’ve never been trained in, then I cross-platformed all my work from a Mac to a PC so our clients wouldn’t lose any of our standardized formatting. I conference-called and managed requests, returned emails, stalked Kinko’s employees, and screened calls.

I sent out 14 FedEx packages, then I tracked them to make sure they were all on time. I tracked our agency PR, our client’s web mentions.

I went to pick up a woman whose car died on the way to our consumer research group- only to find out that she had never been recruited at all. After a 45-minute drive around the metro area, and the suspicion that she was in fact a scammer who had taken advantage of my kindness, I called her a cab home.

I sat in my car and called Joel to make him listen to a play-by-play on the day from hell. He told me that my job was crazy which was actually very helpful.

I sent an email that read something like “Critical to post NV PPT on FTP or okay to send by email? Need final by EOD. LMK your thoughts” without finding the use of five acronyms in 2 sentences annoying or confusing.

I drank coffee at 8 AM. At 3 PM, I brewed more because I felt like my head might explode.

I sent Tali an email asking her how long we have to be office bitches before we can make someone else our bitch, but then didn’t send it because I actually love my job 95% of the time.

I went to dance, the only place where I’m ever in charge, and told my dancers they weren’t allowed to be sarcastic, roll their eyes, or sigh dramatically for 3 whole hours. I think that actually was more difficult for them than my day of chaos was. They tried really hard, though.

I went to bed with grayish-purple circles under my eyes thinking, I CAN do it all! This will come in handy someday when I have kids running around the house in unmatched clothes and unwashed hair, wondering where their dinner is as I compulsively check my email while simultaneously blowing on their burnt Kraft Mac n’ Cheese.

For now, I relish in the fact that I can force a late dinner date on any number of friends, order wine and discuss our weekend plans at length. Then do it all over again. A busy life at 24 is pretty spectacular when you learn how to manage it.