A year ago today I was fired from what I thought would be the job I would retire from.

I absolutely loved that job, and my coworkers there, and truly thought of most of them as family. Even tough I was hired on as part of the marketing team, I also offered to help with IT when they found out I was good with computers. When I started, our department had 4 people in it, but within the first year I was there, the others were let go and I absorbed most of their workload. It was a LOT on me, but I loved my job and the company so much that I even worked from my mother’s hospital room as she battled cancer, and was deeply grateful that our leadership team allowed me as a single mother to work from home during times when my children were sick. However, I also withstood a lot of mental abuse from that job, as well- including putting both my personal and professional reputation on the line to stand by people I thought of as family. I suffered through a lot of professional bullying and a heavily toxic workplace because I was diehard loyal to the company, our VP, and its CEO. There was a lot of stuff that happened in secret that I won’t write about here out of respect to all those involved, but I chose to stand by some people during what felt like professional war, and it brought a lot of mental anguish and drama into my life. Despite the toxicity there, I truly loved and cared about those I’d grown so close to, and wanted to stay close with them. I never dreamed I’d ever leave that company, but it turned out I was very wrong… In the 3 years I was there, I had never been written up and had only recently been coached on a mistake I had made, and all of a sudden I went from being “a diamond in the rough” (our CEO’s actual words about me) to being treated like yesterday’s trash. The company I had been so loyal to and gone above and beyond for fired me and treated me like a criminal the day I was let go, with HR giving me a vague reason for the firing and making me pack up my office and leave the premises within 30 minutes and telling me I was no longer allowed on company property.  After I was let go, very few of those people I thought of as family reached out to me; to say I was shattered is putting it mildly. I felt deeply betrayed, and utterly devastated. Not only did I feel like I had been betrayed by some of the people I cared most about, but I was in a panic about finding another job to provide for my children. It had taken me years to find a good marketing job in my area, and I was terrified that I wouldn’t find another one without having to uproot my entire life and move.

However, GOD IS GOOD and I found not only another job, but an even BETTER position fairly quickly. Thanks to good friends and networking, I was in talks for my current role within just a couple of days of being let go from that job, and ended up being blessed with a role that is absolutely perfect for me as part of an incredible company with a rockstar team. I get to continue doing what I love, for a company that respects me, and the best part is that the culture of this new company is wonderful!! There is no drama or toxicity, and I look forward to going to work every day. Not to mention I get to work from home, which is a huge deal for a single mother; our company truly understands and values a good work/life balance, and that is everything to someone who doesn’t always have a backup to help out with family duties. If I have to take a short break to run an errand or do something for my children, it’s not a big deal, because my boss trusts me to get my work done- and I do, without any micromanaging needed. As part of my new job, I also travel more and I have gotten to experience a lot of new places with some great people.

My experience with that other job taught me a lot and changed me as a person. I used to believe that if you were a good employee and you were loyal to your company, you would always be treated fairly and respectfully. I thought that developing personal relationships with my coworkers would mean that they would always be as loyal to me as I was to them, and that workplace family was as dear as real family. I also thought that offering to help wherever I could, even if it wasn’t in my job description and even if I wasn’t being paid extra for the work, would prove that I was invaluable to the company and indispensable. I found out the hard way that this is not always the case. Losing that job nearly broke me, but I realize now that when it comes to a job, everyone is dispensable. It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do, or how loyal you are to a company- it’s a business, and if there should come a time when that business no longer sees your worth, they will let you go and there will be a ton of people right behind you, ready to take your job. No matter how close you think you are with your coworkers, if the day comes that you no longer work together, sadly your friendships may fade. That isn’t just a fact of business- it’s a fact of life. Things happen and life changes, and people go their separate ways, as bad as it hurts sometimes.

The first and most important lesson I learned in all of that mess was to trust God; they say everything happens for a reason, and “they” are right. God knew there was a better opportunity coming for me, and even though it hurt to go through what I did with that other job, I am better off. Not only am I blessed with a better role in a much better company, I am a stronger person and I have learned to continue investing in myself. Because of what I’ve gone through, I never stop trying to grow my skills and I always strive to be a little better than the day before. I still want to have close personal relationships with my team, but I also realize that life may pull us in different directions, and that’s ok. I don’t trust as blindly as before, and that’s ok, too- I think of it as a self-preservation skill I’ve picked up over the last year.

I share my story not to badmouth my previous employer, but to remind you that no matter what happens in life, whether personally or professionally, it’s all going to be ok. We may go through things in life that we think are the end of the world, but we have to remember that every ending means a new beginning is coming. There’s another saying out there that “rejection is God’s protection”; in my life, I have found this saying to be true so many times. Every single time I thought my world was falling apart, things happened to brought me to a better place than I had previously been. TRUST GOD. If you do, He will always provide. And even if you don’t believe in God, you need to remember the saying “When one door closes, another one opens”. If you feel like the chapter you’re in is ending, it just means that a new chapter is beginning. Trust it; embrace it. Keep working to be the best version of yourself that you can. We may think we’ve hit rock bottom, but that just means there’s only one way to go, and that’s up. So have faith; you may be about to reach the highest high of your life.