A little background history of my career: For three years I worked in a luxury bowling alley. I worked my way up to being a part time Event Lead. While half of my time was spent planning and working events, the other half was spent waiting tables in the restaurant portion of this massive building. There isn’t a job out there that I hated more than serving. Dealing with the constant complaints of the rude, indecisive, and belittling guests really made my days sour. Yes, occasionally you would get those customers that really knew how to put a smile on your face (it helped they were excellent tippers) and it would leave me feeling good about what I was doing. Still, it was not enough to keep me wanting more.
Let’s continue, shall we?
Well let’s see, it all started about a couple days before I got married. I was sitting in a large meeting room with the GM and two of the event managers talking about the future roles within the company. Basically it came down to three options.
Option 1: Don’t get married. Seems crazy, but true. My beloved job wanted me to invest all my time and energy into my career which from the company’s aspect, I completely understood. With hands untied I would have been able to move wherever they wanted me to go. Being married or in a serious relationship you can’t just uproot everything, ask your husband to move for your job that you may or may not keep, and expect the marriage to work.
Thus led me to Option 2: Get married, still put everything I have into my career and hope for the day I would get to become one of the Event Managers for the bowling alley (however many years that would take). They warned me that they didn’t always work the glorified 9-5 shifts, that they would sometimes work up to 75 hours a week, weekends, nights, and holidays included. This option led me to think about what I really wanted. Do I want to be that career oriented woman that spends years making it to the top? I pictured myself carrying a Prada purse, wearing Coach sunglasses, and dressed in a business professional suit more than likely bought someplace more expensive than Ross. Haha, no, it just wasn’t me.
This led to Option 3: Work part time as an event lead and part time as a server. They told me during busy seasons they couldn’t grantee shifts as the event tasks would be dedicated to the other Event Leads who had accepted the idea that they would eventually move to another store. Once again, I competently understood where they were coming from and that they just wanted to see how far I was willing to let my event coordinating abilities go.
I left that meeting room in a daze. Let’s not forget I was GETTING MARRIED in two days, but I was also taking on the thought process of what I wanted out of this career opportunity I had laid out in front of me. I tried to forget about it, but it kept me up most nights. The next time it was brought up was when my new husband and I were on the cruise ship sitting in our favorite wine room and he asked me, “Are you happy?”
“Of course, we just got married!”
“No, with your job,” he responded. This led me to explain what had happened days before we said “I do.” His response, without thinking was to quit! Shocked and relieved I didn’t know what to say. Here I was stuck between ideas. On one hand I would get to be a homemaker, something I have known I have wanted since I was 12. On the other hand, I would be letting all the days spent in a classroom, all the tests and papers completed, the critical thinking and knowledge I had gained and worked hard for wouldn’t have been put to use. Although you can never lose your Bachelor’s Degree, I felt like being a homemaker would have been like cheating on what I worked so hard for.
After spending much time in discussion and working through my thoughts, I came home on my first day back to my job and put my two weeks in. Immediately after handing in my formal paper saying that I was resigning, I had felt this overwhelming sense of peace and relief radiating throughout my whole body. That’s when I knew I was doing the right thing. So ladies, gentlemen, family, and friends as of January 5th, 2016 my dream of being the housewife is currently being lived out. In conclusion, I decided to put all my thoughts, recipes, new ideas, and creative thinking on this little blog called “The Blissful Mrs.” Feel free to follow my journey!
