one year workaversary

One day, you will be driving to work with 3 dozen donuts on the car seat next to you. It's your one-year work anniversary. And you've had these before, it doesn't need to be a big deal - but this one is different.

This year marks more than projects managed and goals achieved, a status on LinkedIn to let everyone you went to grad school with know that you aren't a dud. This year in time marks more joy and loss than you ever dreamed possible. It marks a journey of accepting yourself, and learning how to be in community with others. It is so bittersweet, and it is entwined, this life inside the office and out. Because it was heartbreak that made you cry so many mornings driving into work, and soul-shaking questioning that sobbed silently out of you at your desk, and bone-deep grief that shared the ride home with you. And through that, you built genuine working relationships, and learned Excel functions, and how to write in a new voice. You carved, gently and with patience, a space for yourself. The year marks so much growth and so much hard-earned peace born of chaos that it doesn't even feel like a choice to celebrate, you just do, because you deserve it. 

One day, you will be filled with emotion on the way to work, 3 dozen donuts on the seat beside you, the smell of awe and pride and gratitude satisfyingly thick and sugary sweet.