Jennie Prouty (Provided by Author) This feature is coordinated by The Post-Standard/Syracuse.com and InterFaith Works of CNY. Follow this theme and author posted Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.
The older I get, the more I have wrestled and then accepted that personal priorities not only can change but also should change. I remember at a previous job that my focus was entirely centered on my career and how to get ahead. I would stay late, come in early, and work on weekends.
When all of that wasn’t happening, I was reading books and consuming resources that were all centered around my career. However, whenever I was around family and friends, I felt distant and confused as to why people did not understand the sacrifices I was making for my career. Honestly, I did not have the mental capacity to take on any of their struggles.
One day I realized that it doesn’t matter how successful you are if when you finally get what you’ve been working for, you turn around and there’s no one there to share it with you. My priorities slowly began to change. Ironically, I had to work hard to get myself out of an addiction to work, establish a healthy work-life balance, and begin to care about the issues my loved ones had.
Life isn’t meant to be lived alone. There is beauty, laughter, pain, and sorrow that are all meant to be shared with the ones that we care about the most. Jennie Prouty is the Senior Volunteer Coordinator for the Center for New Americans at InterFaith Works of CNY.
Sh.
