That New Office Feeling

“Do or do not. There is no try.” — Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

It was a snowy winter day, and I was outside, walking on snow. Then it happened: the thought that started it all. All of a sudden, I decided that I was changing careers. I decided that real estate was it. I knew it right then, at a moment’s notice, that my life was about to change.

Let me take you back to twenty years ago, in 2001 when I started Law School. It was my institution of choice, my career of choice, and I was determined. But as fate would have it, in my fourth year of Law (it is a five-year program in Brazil), I decided to switch directions for a little while and enrolled in a work and travel exchange program. I lived for one year in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin, USA, where I made friends and fell in love with the Great Lakes and with a handsome local. Truth is if you know Door County, and I hope you do, then you know that you can’t help but fall in love with the Peninsula. The way it feels, the way you breathe when you are here. Rumor has it that when you are on or above the 45th parallel… magic happens.

My change of direction for a little while became a life change – a move across the world. I returned to Brazil to see family and friends and complete my law degree. Soon after I started researching and planning my move, and six months after graduating I started studying Economics at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. I did not finish the course, and after my first semester, I moved to Door County and never looked back.

Many years have passed, and now I am sitting here in my new office. I know that I am only here because of where I have been. I am grateful for my experiences, which in the last fourteen years have ranged from customer service to marketing to legal assistant to marine fabricator. I have absolutely loved every job I have had and continue to find great satisfaction in the people I have worked with and for and the skills I have learned.

Oh, that new office feeling… The feeling of change, new beginnings, and slight fear, the butterflies in the stomach, the hopes, the dreams, and all that jazz. No new office feeling comes without acknowledging where we have been, what we have conquered, what we have become. Our past sure stays behind, but not without shaping us. Everything that we do helps us define what and who we are every day.

If you are having that new office feeling… Hi, and cheers. I hope you remain grateful, humble, and full of hope, just like I do. And if you are hoping to make a change, remember, “Do or do not. There is no try.”