Two months ago, the company I work for was acquired. In the world we live in today, it’s not uncommon for mergers and acquisitions to happen quicker than the time it takes for Jeff Bezos to land on the moon. However, unlike Bezos, the change and its subsequent effects can take much longer than 15 minutes. There are new processes to learn, new names of coworkers to get to know, timesheets (oh, the timesheets — if you’ve been in the agency world for any length of time, you feel my pain). Going from a team of 10 to a team of 800 influences a person, no doubt.
On the evening before the acquisition was made public, my stellar team of 10 and I received an email from my boss and founder of our company. A Georgia native, Beth’s warm Southern drawl will instantly invite you in. However, make no mistake: The woman is a badass PR veteran who knows the health care industry like the back of her hand, and she has a zero-tolerance policy for BS. Mansplainers beware.
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The email, eloquently titled, “Musings on Change,” was a tender, poignant response to the events our company faced. Many of the members on the team had been with Beth since the company’s inception 16 years ago. Others, like myself and my colleague, Lisa, had joined the agency earlier this year. But regardless of tenure, the message to all of us was the same: “Let’s lean into it all.”
These five words midway through that email made my breath catch in my throat. The year 2020 was a dumpster fire and 2021 hasn’t been much different. Sure, there’s been some bright spots — we have a woman in the White House, y’all. We have vaccines (multiple!) that are saving lives and one of which is FDA approved. Unemployment is down, jobs are up. So on and so forth. But if there’s one thing I’m learning, it’s that if you’re going to ride the waves of change that are indisputably going to continue to come, you must lean in. And you have to lean into it all.
A big part of the last 18 months for me is realizing that leaning in is kind of like a dance. At the dance, you have two partners — joy and grief. Joy is oftentimes the blonde-haired, blue-eyed school-girl jumping up and down with her friends, ready for the music to start. Grief is the shy guy on the sidelines, remembering the girl who broke his heart, knowing that being at the dance is part of the healing process. And here’s the thing — you need two to tango.
Over the past year and a half, I’ve gone through a lot of change. I have experienced what can only be described as the highest of highs and some pretty damn low lows. New love, grief of what wasn’t, realization of what is, excitement for what’s ahead, learning a dream job (prior to taking my current role) wasn’t the dream, gratitude for what’s in front of me, dust to gold in so many ways. And here’s the thing: I know that sometimes life can be hard, but it can also be so, so, so good.
Beth’s email on the eve of the acquisition’s public announcement was a gentle reminder that joy and grief can coincide. The bubbly girl can ask the shy boy to dance. You can be sad, and you can be happy. You can be fearful, and you can be expectant. You can expel the lie that society tells that feelings are mutually exclusive.
I’m here to tell you that if I’ve learned anything in my 26 years and especially in the last 18 months, that could not be further from the truth.
As we venture into a new month and a new season, with fresh fall leaves crunching underfoot and earlier sunsets that signal winter is coming, we are reminded that change happens best when we go with the flow. So let go of the perfection that isn’t possible and lean into it all.