A Glimpse at What my Career Might Have Been

During the few hours I was with the HBO film crew, I had such a wonderful feeling. Working with intelligent, vivacious, creative people in a collaborative setting. Wow! Something I always wanted to experience in my working life but never did. For the moments of brainstorming we had together, I am so grateful. I felt as if I were really using my smarts.

I remember my friend Heather saying of one of the positions she held in PR that she was using all her smarts. At the time, I knew that had never been the case in my career. The work had often not been sufficiently challenging, or the people I was working with were not open to new ideas or were dullards or were not that smart, or the way the organization was structured did not allow for creative input.

Of course, writing an article is intellectually challenging, but it's a solitary business. I do the research, the interviewing, the writing, the rewriting. The experience I always wanted, however, and one that I even prayed to have, was working with a team of intelligent, happy, enthusiastic, creative people with whom I would bounce off ideas and see my ideas put into action. That's what I really missed in my work life. I never felt as if my talents were being used, much less appreciated or compensated.

So for a few moments I saw what might have been. I suppose it still could be, if staying alive didn't require so much of my time!