How one e-mail changed my life

In the summer of 2000, I was working as a public relations intern in Raleigh. I was just about to start my senior year of college, and I was looking for ways to expand my portfolio and gain work experience before heading out into the real world. One afternoon when things were slow and nothing was demanded of me, I went online to my university’s Web site and just looked around. I noticed that the public information office had student workers, so I e-mailed the director of the office and inquired about the possibility of working as a writer during my senior year.

I view sending this e-mail as a pivotal point in my life. If I hadn’t sent that e-mail, the entire course of my life would have been different. How I’m not entirely sure, but I can say with relative certainty that I wouldn’t have met one of my very best friends, I wouldn’t have developed a passion for alumni publications, and I wouldn’t have a very cute and cuddly kitty named Sprocket in my life. Basically, I wouldn’t be who I am today.

The director e-mailed me back promptly and let me know that they did hire student writers, and he would be happy to talk to me about working in the office. So when I moved back to campus in August, I paid him a visit and signed on to be a student writer. For the entire year, I worked 10 hours a week in the office, writing news releases and feature stories and proofreading other materials. It was there that I met Helene Alexion Dubois (not her real name, and I hope not misspelled), who over the years has become like a sister to me. When graduation time rolled around, the director of the office helped me get a job as a reporter at a weekly paper in a neighboring city. That job turned out to be the worst six months of my life, but I was saved a little while later by a call from my old boss at the university. He offered me a job working as a grant researcher/writer in the university’s advancement office.

That’s when I moved into an office that I shared with Tereca, one of the sweetest ladies you’ll ever meet. Tereca was a great office companion, full of energy and optimism. She also had a daughter who was the owner of a crazy kitten. She often called Tereca to complain about the cat and his antics. One day while Tereca was talking to her on the phone, she turned to me and asked, “Do you want a cat?” And that’s how Sprocket came into my life.

As time passed, change occurred. The director left and moved out of state, Helene eventually adopted a little boy and she left her job to be with him and find work closer to her home. I got promoted to Helene’s old job as publications manager, a job I held for a little over a year before I decided that graduate school was the next step I needed to advance further in my career.

And now here I am today. I have a career goal, and I am steadily working my way toward it. I have my master’s degree, I have a job as an editor of an alumni magazine, and I have a lot of good experience under my belt. I also have a great friend in Helene and the rest of her family. And of course, I have Sprocket, the best cat a girl could ask for. And if I hadn’t sent that e-mail one lazy afternoon long long ago, I probably wouldn’t have any of it. Instead, I’d probably be a millionaire’s wife or something, but that’s another story. :)