So I’ve been spending the last few days at a coworker’s apartment for several reasons, most outstanding of which is due to my job and the fact I’ll be moving into my own place in two weeks (wow that is one exciting thought right there). Of course, this is also the second year in a row that I’ve done this and partly because of the nature of retail and partly because of other reasons like where my parents live. How I’ve managed to get away with even three days off to go to my mom’s house in Florida both years is a Christmas miracle of its own. Especially when you’re in a management position and holidays are generally classified as an all-hands-on-deck time of year. I’m not complaining, I’m just stating that this leads to some interesting situations like spending two or three weeks on a friends couch and your grandparent’s guest bedroom. Well, I guess that’s life when you’re parents are divorced and the one that actually has a bed for you is well-over 300 miles away.

So where am I going with this? Definitely not saying my life around the holidays is more interesting than yours, mind you that maybe I’m just complaining about my family’s status at the moment and how it’s been for the last two years. Is there anything I can do about it? No, not really, so I’m stuck trying to make the most of the situation. Of course, I’m also presented with the option of saying about how other people have handled the situation they’ve put themselves in, but I’ve learned I’m just better off keeping my mouth shut about those things for various reasons. Either way, this is something I never saw coming five years ago when I went on my first Christmas break from college.

Actually, I find it kind of funny looking back five years ago, and honestly, I never would have guessed it would be this way in five years. Both parents were close by, I thought I had my next eight to twenty years planned out and I had the impression that nothing could possibly screw all that up. Boy was I wrong. Four months into 2012 and things start tumbling down hill with my dad, admitting he was seeing someone (really having an affair). Then finding out your then-girlfriend at the time breaks up with you right before Christmas and was cheating on you while you were away at a different school at the time (hurray). Then someone misinforming you that you can’t get a commission when really, after doing your own homework and research and discovering several months after the fact, yes you still could have but now you shot yourself in the foot metaphorically, so now you really can’t. Top that all off, the next year your parents get divorced and two months later move away to sunny Florida.

The list goes on, but I’m going to stop there because, despite what feels like, five years of getting my face constantly getting kicked in by life, there have been signs of light. I’ve been recently promoted at work and, despite what some people may think, there is a load of opportunity that has been opened up to me because of that. It’s in times like these that I’m reminded of the book of Job, the story of a man who had everything in his life and suddenly, it goes to shit in the blink of an eye. He’s a man of God, but after everything goes to shit for him (and if you've never read it, it really does), his friends and surviving family are all telling him to curse God and then die. This conversation keeps going between them until God literally has to butt in and tell everyone to just shut the hell up and leave him be. Spoilers, Job gets rewarded by God for his faithfulness in the end and he has double of what he had before in as far as family and property. So yeah, while the last five years may have sucked for me, I’m feeling confident that it will eventually turn around. Could be today or even another year, I just gotta remember to be faithful in all of this.