parenting, page-23

Michelef...

Your concerns remind me of the name of a certain Newsletter called 'Crisis and Opportunity'.

At age 21 my high achieving daughter was wooed to Melbourne for a promotion with a large intnl company. Being a beach goer who had just moved out of home into a flat at a Sydney beachside suburb she sobbed as she told me of the 'opportunity' that had been offered to her. Wasn't happy about leaving family, friends but felt it was something she needed to do for her career. They wanted her down there in a hurry so within 2 weeks she said goodbye to all, packed up her car and settled interstate.

Within 9 days of her arrival and 3 days before her 22nd birthday we received a gut-wrenching phone call..........she had been retrenched (along with others nationally).......'crisis'...!!

It was a big set-back, both emotionally and financially as it had cost her a lot to move and set up. Her boyfriend at the time had just days earlier resigned from his job so he could join her.

After a few days she raced out and got a job waitressing in a food chain (thank goodness for her many years Maccas experience) to make ends meet whilst she looked for a 'real job'. After all the glory of the job she was going to, she didn't want to come back to Sydney with egg on her face (her words).

So, she landed a job with a large company and remained in Melbourne for the next year. It was during this time she decided to change her whole career direction. She accepted a graduate traineeship in a new field back in Sydney and came back to a job with half the salary she had previously been earning in Sydney, no car or any of the other benefits that she had been used to.

Today, she is highly successful as she has moved her way up the corporate ladder in her field and is on a lucrative salary. It took a while for the 'opportunity' to develop. She is happy.

I wish your son all the best, and you all the coping mechanisms that you can muster if the inevitable happens. As the old saying goes 'as one door closes another opens'......it just depends how hard the person pushes on the door to open it and the opportunity he grabs from this potential crisis...!!!

Cheers...
Cazzex