The Phone Call That Ended a 30-Year Chapter

I was laid off from Verizon the week before Thanksgiving. Unsurprisingly my immediate reaction was one of sadness. I had worked there for nearly 30 years. Verizon had put me through college, had traveled me all over the world. I made some of the best friends of my life there. Sadly, a large part of my identity was tied up in my job. I had worked there my entire adult life. I grew up there. Suddenly, with one phone call, that was all gone.

I had to wait three days before telling my team. Those three days were incredibly hard. It was hard to focus, hard to pretend nothing was wrong. When I could finally tell my team, I’m not ashamed to say that I cried, and so did they. The corporate world often treats us as resources instead of people, but I genuinely cared about every member of my team and I knew they cared about me.

What I didn’t expect after that phone call was a massive feeling of relief, the feeling of freedom. For the first time since I was a teenager I didn’t have a path laid out for me by someone else. From that point on my fears were more around not wasting this new found freedom and less about losing a part of my identity with my job.

As luck would have it I had already had a trip to Utah planned for the week of Thanksgiving. It was already paid for and non-refundable, so I went. It was on this trip that I made the decision to travel for a few months which lead me to where I am today.

What Comes Next

I’m starting this blog to help me process this transition - to figure out what happens when you trade in your 30 year corporate career for a van and a map. I can’t promise a strict schedule of posts (life is a bit hectic as I prepare to hit the road), but I hope my story helps anyone facing similar crossroads.

Stay tuned for future posts where I’ll let you know more about me; my dog, Baxter; and my van, Bob Seger and the adventures we undertake. It might be mildly entertaining.