Today I quit

I knew I was ready and hungry for change. I knew I had to be the one to pull myself out of the old and into the new.

Sometime in the summer of last year I hit the wall and was ready to give up on my communications career. My work wasn't giving me any satisfaction anymore. None. I felt like the more I tried to create happiness the more elusive it became. I couldn't even remember what had ever made me passionate about communications in the first place.

So unhappy was I that I started exploring other career path options and how I could get onto them. I was in the middle of exploring the steps to becoming a career counsellor when I got a call for an interview for what looked to me like a dream job, a dream communications job.

At that moment I realized there was still something in me that got excited about creating and delivering messages to an audience and so I jumped off of the alternative career path and back onto my initial one. This opportunity I had was the most amazing looking thing I'd ever had land in my lap. It was with one of the Big Four accounting firms with oodles of perks like concierge service.

I studied hard for that interview, like I had never prepped before. I spent a weekend writing out notes on chart paper about how I met the qualifications and rehearsed interview questions. I made it to the Partner interview and then waited for weeks before I finally got the word:

"You have some impressive skills and talents, but we've decided to go with someone who has more experience."

It was a phrase I was going to get a few times more yet. At a low point after not being offered another "dream" job I'd interviewed for I felt lost and questioned my decision to recommit myself to my communications career. My mom pretty much had to scrape me off the floor one night in a puddle of tears. What good was believing in yourself, I thought, if no one else believes in you too? I felt like I had failed at my own promotional campaign. I interviewed for and lost out on five different jobs in a span of three months.

In late January I found a posting that was something different. It was in communications, but not corporate communications. There are very few not-for-profit organizations I'd consider working for because I believe you need a lot of passion about the cause to work for it. Cancer, heart disease and diabetes are all terrible and have touched my family, but none have had much resonance with me yet.

When my uncle died last summer it turned my family upside down with pain and grief. I also remember though the comfort that came from the fact that my uncle was able to be a multiple organ donor. My dad and my aunt spent a long night at the hospital while the coordination took place but they relayed back to me the positive experience they had with the organ donor coordinator and how hard she worked to find recipients for my uncle's organs. My dad said over and over again that he had great admiration for the woman and what she does every day.

My new job, which I start on March 7, will not be to coordinate organ donors and recipients, but to inspire people to become donors. As the new communications coordinator I will be tasked with increasing awareness about the importance of organ donation and communicating how one becomes an organ donor. Currently, about 94% of Canadians believe organ donation is a good thing, but only 40-50% actually sign their cards and tell their family their wishes. Therein lies my communication challenge. I believe that organ donation not only saves lives, but also makes heroes out of every day people. It doesn't matter if you were a saint or a miserable jerk when you were living, you can still make the ultimate difference in a stranger's life. I am honoured and thrilled to be the person in charge of spreading that message.

Once again, I marvel at the journey I took to get here and how every heartache had its merit. Life is like a mural--much too impressive to spend examining and fretting over the small details. It is when you take a step back that it all comes into focus.