Good Morning.
Not quite a year ago,
I lamented some personal losses from Covid. Not people - rather, intangibles. Happiness, Fulfillment, Hope, Opportunity, Health. You know, things we took for granted before 2020.
The biggest opportunity I felt I lost last year was getting into a training role on a much larger stage - taking my methods and ideas national for all of the Trolley cities. As last year's blog notes, I had conversations with the then National Trainer, as well as some emails with the COO of all of Old Town Trolley.
At this time last year, I was on my last two weeks driving tours, and I thought I was finished forever. With hindsight being 20/20, I know I spent all of last winter in a deep, brooding depression. "Fired at Work" (which I wasn't; but I lost my title and got laid off) scores a 47 of 100 on the
Life Change Index Scale.
I worked all winter, unhappily. Driving for
that company went from barely palatable to completely intolerable in the span of 48 hours after I spent some months looking the other way. An abortive attempt to return to healthcare ended in failure. But trolleys came back on July 4 as quickly as they disappeared last March.
Now, barely two months back driving - and that National Trainer role I had coveted 18 months ago is suddenly vacant. I have had a meeting with the Boston General Manager, and I've spoken to HR. My application will be going to St. Augustine (corporate headquarters) next week.
Now, I don't know if I'll get it. But I'm hoping that putting my name out the rehabilitates me completely. I was Head Conductor all too briefly, but I think I got that job because I had the audacity to apply for the General Manager's position in Boston when it was open a few years back. Of course I didn't get it - but it did get me noticed.
I'll liken this to the Appalachian Trail. One of my friends took a year off from work and through-hiked from Georgia to Mt. Greylock in Western Massachusetts. (He eventually did finish it.) Another of my friends in Scouts has spent his entire adult life section-hiking the trail, and he's about 80% finished now.
For me, it feels great just getting back on the trail again. Who knows what's around the next bend? That's the joy of the journey.