January 3: The Unabashed Coworker

My plane landed 6 hours away from where it started. It landed at the dark hour before the dawn, in below-freezing temperatures, and it left me alone. I battled the start of the subway rush hour with a broken suitcase and humbled spirit. I was greeted by an office that was busy and bustling with flying papers, loose documents, sonatas of ringing phones, bursting inboxes and incessant interrogation from coworkers, so it was no wonder I went to the back for a breath of air and exhaled a weeping mess instead.

I didn't go unnoticed, and I soon had a small crowd of three empathetic women around me. The humorous part is that from my sobs and apologies, what they seemed to take from this was that I was upset about turning another year older, which wouldn't happen for another two and a half months anyway. I wasn't, but I didn't care enough to correct them.

Then there comes my newest coworker, the most cheerful and sweet person you've ever known to exist, who tells me her own story of hitting a milestone year (which, again, I'm not) but she was candid and unashamed and told me about a time she had to restart her life when her partner of 5 years left her for a 19-year-old, she lost her job and lived above a garage... and still seemed to come out okay.

It touched me and encouraged me that she felt she could open up that part of herself to me, all because she saw me in tears and wanted to comfort another person. I was met where I had need that day. She was (and is) a gem.