Yay for me! Stress and dealin'

2 posts ago, I wrote a little bit about an ordeal I went through with my old company. A few hours after posting that, I accidentally saw that I was going to be face-to-face with some of my old company at a professional event I was an organizer for. A scenario I hadn't even thought about. Seeing as I was on the organizing committee AND that I really, really respect all of the other people on the committee (almost all of whom are big-wigs in my professional community), I decided to suck it up and deal with it. I let one person know so she could have my back if I needed to walk away, but other than that I kept it to myself.

A funny thing happened...I worried about it a little bit, but then got so busy DOING stuff for the event that I didn't allow myself to dwell on it. When the first day arrived I saw the people that had caused me so many problems previously, but made busy work for a few seconds to get through and was able to jump back into my cheerful self, helping everyone else that came my way. The only person I had to talk to from my old company was someone I WANTED to talk to: a newer guy that is super-smart and super-nice. He is going to go far (and I told my boss that when I left!) The problem people saw me (as I saw them) and scurried away. (Yes I am purposely using that verb as it is apropos.)

And you know what - I was ok.

Photo from http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2011/10/adventures-in-depression.html

I turned to my "got my back" friend after the few problem people had passed (and no one else was around us at the moment) and declared, "I am really proud of myself." Her response "You should be. You were awesome." She wasn't even able to tell which people were the ones I had been worried about even though she stood next to me most of the time. Perfect. Something that a month ago would have had me shaking, was successfully and professionally handled by moi.

The things I have been doing to reduce and deal with stress are working; to bring it back full circle - that's essential for our future success of having a baby. Wishing all of you (and me!) continued success in this realm. Even little successes.