At 38, I became a mom, after years and years of disappointment. Talk about a reinvention of ones self. My life turned around 180 degrees. Nothing was the same. After the first few months I wondered… How was I so busy before and what was I doing to be that busy? This was busy and being responsible for a whole new little person. A blank slate that I had to teach and nurture til they were old enough to leave the nest.
I was able to stay home until my 40th birthday and then it was back to the business world for me. I remember the first day I looked at myself in the mirror wearing a suit that I’d worn before baby and it just didn’t look the same. My waist was no longer smooth and no flat tummy and I had mom boobs. Oh my god! I had lost 45 ponds but I’d gained 75 with the baby and apparently more to go. But, I needed a job, so I went to the store, got some new foundation full figured undergarments and sucked in my stomache and started putting resumes out.
At 40 and having a baby late in life, you just look at everything different. You are talking about college fund and retirement fund in the same breath. I interviewed for 6 jobs in the first 2 weeks that I qualified for and was comfortably satisfied I could get. The one I really wanted was to be an architectural assistant for an office attached to the local county hospital. I wanted that one so bad. I sat in the employment office at the hospital filling out an application with 10 other girls. Ten twenty-year-old, slim, long legged young women. Every time one went up they would ask when they would start interviewing and they were told interviews were in progress and this was the last day. Approximately thirty applicants were being interviewed.
I looked at all the younger women placing applications and thought, well this is going to really be a brains over beauty thing. Some had no experience or no construction or architectural experience. I had it alll … I had everything they needed and more. But, I lloked down and felt my pudgy body feeling like it wanted to explode out of my suit and tried to think positive.
I finally got my interview three days later. I had worked 4 years before for the Director of Construction at the hospital and we had really hit it off until I had to leave because my husband’s job moved us, again. He was not a happy man and he was my second interview if I was chosen as the top three. My interview with the Architects went very well, I was very happy . They were a very family oriented group. They all had little ones and didn’t pay attention to anything but my qualifications. So I went home and waited. I waited another week. I called and asked if the position had been filled. Not yet. OK. So, I waited another week and nothing. Another call to employment. Another week … this went on for 6 weeks and on the six week I called the Director of Architecture directly asking him if he’d filled it because if they hadn’t, I was the candidate who was most qualified. I was team oriented, I loved learning new things and I loved people. I sold myself and he asked me to come in the next day for a 2nd interview.
I went in and interviewed with the Director of Construction and altho he asked the question, "You are planning on staying put, this time, aren’t you?" I smiled and guaranteed him that I wasn’t going anywhere and I wasn’t.
I started the following week. It was a job I had dreamed of, I learned so much, I learned new computer programs, I learned how to burn mylars and then make prints from them, bind prints, etc. I worked with the men on the Master Facility Plan and we put hundreds of hours into measuring every inch of the hospital. I met and worked with outside architects, engineers, city officials, the Hospital Board, Administration. I did not have a sit down at your desk type job, I was on the go constantly. I was envied because I had a job a lot of people would have loved except they didn’t know what it was, until I started doing it. I expanded the job and responsibilities and made my job a terrific job. It was the beginning of finding myself in my forties and I loved it. I never felt so complete and my baby was still number one and every minute away from the office was with her. She was in the hospital day care. I enjoyed both life’s to the fullest and was awarded employee of the month which was an honor because I was recognized for all the projects I had accoomplished. I had arrived and I was loving it.