If you would’ve told me at the beginning of the year that everything about my life would be completely different by the end of the year, I would have a hard time believing you.

Two weeks into 2009, I was laid off. I invested four and a half years into a job where I worked my way up from an afterthought hire to an inside sales assistant to a fully commissioned outside sales engineer. I completely remember the events of that day.

I got an email from my boss asking if I was going to be around after our weekly Friday sales meeting saying that he had some things to discuss. My boss NEVER asks to speak with me. He pretty much let me do my own thing and occassionally he’d stick his head into my office making sure I WASN’T there and I was out visiting clients. So when I got his email, along with rumors of layoffs, I couldn’t help but freak out.

After talking to a coworker, I grew the balls to go in and ask him if we could talk about it immediately as I couldn’t stand to obsess over what he needed to talk to me about overnight. As soon as I walked in and brought up the email, he quickly said, “No, it’ll have to wait until tomorrow.” I even asked if he could tell me what it was about. At this point my voice was quivering and I was breaking into a sweat. Again I got, “Nope. We’ll talk about it tomorrow.” What. The. Fuck.

By now, I pretty much knew what all this meant. Later that day at around 4pm, he stopped by my office as he usually does but instead of just checking in, he came inside and closed the door behind him. He ended up doing the decent thing by letting me know I was getting laid off since he knew that I wasn’t stupid and that I probably figured out what was going on. So he gave me all my papers the day before and spared me the humiliation of having to clean out my office the next day in front of all my coworkers. In the end, being laid off wasn’t so bad. I got unemployment, I was able to find a new job quickly and with the time off I was able to take a “vacation”.

Shortly after starting my new job, I took the leap and decided to move into an apartment on my own. No longer would I be living in a frathouse-style living arrangement. I’d be paying the rent and the utilities all by myself. I found a great move in special in the Artists Village area in Downtown Santa Ana. In retrospect, it was totally an impulse move and if I sat down longer to think about it, I wouldn’t have done it, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. I enjoy having an entire space to myself and the bars and restaurants that are within walking distance are about as unique as you’ll find in Orange County.

Those were the two biggest changes for me in 2009 but a lot of other things happened as well. I snowboarded for the first time in Mammoth. I had my own housewarming party. I attended two weddings this year. My good friend, and old coworker, Christian got married in August. And my parallel Van literally had her dream wedding in Washington, D.C. in September. Two more of my close friends got engaged in 2009 so that’s at least two weddings to look forward to in 2010. Throw in a Vegas trip, a camping trip, and multiple drives down to San Diego and that pretty much describes how I spent 2009.

I found out first hand that A LOT can change in one year. Here’s to looking forward to all the changes and events I’ll encounter in the next year.

Posted on January 5, 2010 in Life, Review.