Finding Success

 A year ago this past weekend Cam, Doug and I visited Bloomington to celebrate Brett's birthday and Valentines Day with he, Cal and Meg.  It was a nice family visit with one concerning note.  Brett told us that he thought that his position with IU Athletics would soon be terminated.  We were a little surprised by the news, but were hopeful that this would not be the case.  A few weeks later just as lockdown was approaching, Brett called to let us know that he was correct and that his position had been eliminated.  We felt terrible for Brett that he would have to look for a new position, but thankful that he would no longer be putting in 60+ hours in a job that he really did not enjoy.

Finding a new career last spring was put on hold due to the pandemic.  Thankfully, Brett had retained his part time job at Bell Trace which was quickly moved to full time once they heard of his availability.  It kept him busy, gave him a meaningful purpose during the health crisis and paid the bills until he could start the job search process once again.  

Once May rolled around and the state began to open back up, Brett searched through job openings on Indeed.  He wasn't looking forward to hunting for a job, but once he got started he realized that there were actually more openings than he thought there would be.  He began getting interviews right away.  By the middle of June Brett had three positions available to him and a decision to make.  We listened to his thoughts on the different offers, but didn't give too much advice.  He kept leaning towards one and then would changes his mind to another one.  In the end Brett listened to his instincts and starting a new career in Storage Express.  It was out of his comfort zone at first as there were sales quotas involved and accounts to reconcile, but once he finished his three month training he was more than excited about his new position.  

I thought a lot about this past year when Brett called this week to talk about his car payment and signing his lease for another year.  Every month he and I review his budget together and then he makes the decision on how much to put in savings and how much to put towards his car loan.  His goal has been to pay it off in two years if possible.  As we went through his finances he talked a lot about his job and how much he enjoys it.  He found out over the weekend that he had one of the lowest delinquency rates in the company and that they had moved his desk.  He was proud of both as the first meant he was working hard and the second that he no longer needed as much supervision from his boss.  I was very happy for him.  He had worked hard this past eight months.  It was nice to be feel some of that success pay off.