My first job after graduation was with Simon Marketing. It was my dream job - working on promotions for Kraft and McDonald's (How many people get to say they work on Happy Meal Toys!?). We worked in the coolest office with crazy artwork, toys and games everywhere. We had catered-in lunches, we got free Happy Meal Collectible Toys, we went to all sorts of fun work outings in the city. But most importantly, we worked with some of the greatest people I've ever met, many of who I still keep in touch with (and even work with) to this day, almost 11 years later.
There were 5 of us girls that started that summer in 2000. We were the pions, the new kids on the block. We stuck together, trying to figure out what this so called "real world" was all about. We looked up to our colleagues, wondering if we would ever get to where they were in life. From their knowledge and experience on the job, to seeing them get married and have babies. It's amazing how quickly a year and a half can go by and how much we seemed to learn. And not too long after that year and a half went by, we also learned what it was like to be laid off - all because of one rogue employee who decided to be greedy and steal the winning Monopoly game pieces - McDonald's fired Simon Marketing, which meant the end of us... And a few weeks later, September 11th happened. Where would we go? What would we do next? Our lives seemed over at the ripe old age of 22.
I went to dinner with those 4 girls last night. GNO (girls night out) is what we call it. A tradition we have kept up monthly (or so) since that dreadful day we were laid off in September 2001. Yes, 10 years later, we are still passing around the excel spreadsheet once a month with each of our availability, shading in the days we CANNOT make it (something that we have all tried to instill with other groups of friends, but for some reason no one else gets it...). We always rotate locations of restaurants and try to get together in each other's neighborhoods.
The tradition is we go around the table and each of us takes turns giving updates on what's new in our lives. Over the years, we have pretty much seen it all - loss of jobs, graduation, interviewing, new jobs, broken hearts, death, marriage, divorce, illnesses, babies. You name it. Last night I sat back and looked at these 4 amazing women and realized how incredibly different we all are, yet we all pretty much started out as that same scared young girl right out of college.
Today:
Christy is a Lawyer and lives with her boyfriend in the burbs.
Angela is married and is a working mother of two.
Vanessa is married and is a stay-at-home mother of 1.
Jen is working and married to her husband of 6 years.
And Me. I'm the single one, traveling the world (yet I was the only one who had a boyfriend when we all first met).
It's funny how things change. I'm so proud to say that we can still come together and learn and grow from each other's heartaches and happiness. We all take turns and have our ups and downs each month. We are all honest (I mean 100% honest) with each other. We respect each other and each other's opinions and decisions in life. And it all comes full circle. We will continue to change and grow and learn and support one another for another 10 years. And I can't wait to see where it takes us...
And I can't help but add that sometimes it's even the silly things that come full circle. One of the first times we all went out for a work lunch together back in 2000, the team took us to sushi - something we at 21 had never done. For some reason Vanessa decided to scoop a large hunk of wasabi into her mouth, claiming she thought it was Guacamole (Guacamole at Sushi restaurant?? Oh, Vanessa!). Needless to say, Vanessa learned quickly that day and was eating sushi like a pro last night. :)
Our days at Simon Marketing were short lived, but we learned that life does go on, up, down, and even sideways sometimes.
I wish I could say I had some older pictures to compare this new one to, but I don't think they made digital cameras back in 2000, did they girls??? ;) The only one I could find below was from a couple of years ago...Personally, I think we look the same as we did when we were 21!!
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