Just before my 23rd birthday life was going great. I had a job that I loved; I was working with a team of really cool people, doing something that excited me. I was able to be creative for a living, developing and growing skills I already had as well as learning new ones. I met my targets pretty consistently and, although I made some mistakes, I did the best I could. I learned and grew in my role as it expanded and changed, however when it came to my six-month probation meeting everything changed. My boss told me that the job I was doing was not, in hindsight, the role that the team needed and that they would not be continuing to employ me past my initial probationary period. I was devastated, I didn’t know what to do.
Life is full of disruptions: disturbances, problems and interruptions that catch us off-guard and throw all of our plans out of the window. My life has been full of situations completely outside of my control, plans I have made that have fallen through, and mistakes I have made along the road. Life never seems to go to plan; sooner or later it throws us a curveball that sends everything into confusion. Sooner or later things go wrong.
data-animation-override>
“We grow because of disruptions.”
But of course, life goes on. When our plans fall through, when situations don’t go the way we thought they would, life still goes on. The journey is not over yet. Rob Bell says “we grow because of disruptions.” When we go through suffering or when problems come our way it forces us to grow and change because tomorrow cannot be a repeat of today. After losing my job, at first everything seemed so bleak, it seemed like everything I had worked for had been for nothing. But slowly I started to see the opportunities that had opened up because of it. I decided to book myself a holiday. I went to California on my own and spent two and a half weeks travelling in L.A. and San Francisco, discovering my love for travel and seeing new places and cultures. I decided to set myself up as a freelancer, rediscovering sound engineering and music production for the first time in years. I began blogging again and started to question and deconstruct my Christian faith in a way I hadn’t before. Losing my job, in many ways, was exactly what I needed to move forwards in my life and, looking back, the way I’ve grown and the opportunities I’ve had in the past year would not have happened if I had not lost that job.
I’ve had many disruptions in my life, obstacles I’ve had to overcome that have shaped and moulded me into the person I am today. More often than not, these have stretched and inspired me into becoming a better person. They’ve challenged me to develop new skills, to rethink my opinions on things and forced me to question the values I live my life by. I’m starting to appreciate every moment that comes my way, to see every disruption as an opportunity to be changed, and to continue to become a more loving, open and ambitious person with every situation life gives me. Above all, I’m learning to pay attention to the moment, and see what I can learn through every opportunity that comes my way.
Related Reading
Please feel free to comment or share the post using the links below, and don’t forget to sign up to receive my posts via email here!
