Full Circle
“I would sit there, gently rocking and watching my baby girl sleep, but my mind would drift,” reminisced Drew as he stared off in the distance. “I lost my job just nine days before she was born.”
Drew and I hadn’t known each other very long, but as we connected over coffee, a calm trust developed. That seemingly distant memory, from seventeen years prior, still carried a deep scar as history was about to rhyme.
“My company is going to be sold in a few months, and there is a good chance my position may be eliminated,” he continued. “I have lost my job a few times before. My career has been anything but linear.”
This time around, however, felt eerily familiar. It wasn’t his daughter whom he worried about but his wife, recently diagnosed with breast cancer and going through treatment to beat the disease. “We’ve been through a lot. She has always been there for me as my career took turns, and I am there for her in the same way as she fights through this now.”
While the prognosis was positive, the unknown still lingered—life had come full circle.
“Back when my daughter was born, I made a pact with God,” Drew confessed. “I prayed for resolution and promised that if things worked out, I would help others in their careers.” Today, this pledge drives him to help others network. Working through his alma mater, he assists students in finding internships and class projects that will position them for success.
“I wish I knew then what I know now,” he reflected. “Careers aren’t linear; everyone faces adversity along the way. One of the best ways to navigate those setbacks is through a strong professional network. I’m helping these students build one.”
My mind imagined a younger man, in the quiet wee hours of the morning, sitting in a chair surrounded by nursery decor, gently rocking, silently crying, desperately praying. It didn’t take much for me to put myself in those shoes, for I too had been there before. So too have many parents.
For Drew, a career that hadn’t gone according to plan didn’t break him. It gave him perspective, strengthening his resolve during life’s most vulnerable moments. And in the end, that resolve inspired him to become the kind of person he once needed himself.