What is it like to sift through 17 years’ worth of office work?

I see success. Failures. Growth.

I see naïveté. Optimism.  Battles fought.

I see the transition of a fresh-out-of-college graduate in an entry level position doing tasks she disliked to someone who made it to a position that was more suitable.

I see routine.  Product life cycles.  Remnants of discontinued products.

Countless stacks of articles that have been edited, re-edited and published.

Old correspondence. Ghosts of employees past who I have banished from memory.  Names long erased and barely familiar.

I see emails outlining new ideas, new packages, new campaigns.

I see reminders of my shortcomings. My unfinished ideas.  I still love them and believe in their viability.  I don’t have the resources to finish them… yet.

I see handwritten thank you cards.  Christmas cards that have warm sentiments.  Long forgotten doodles my coworker and I have drawn on scraps of paper.

Plastic cockroaches, spiders and other creatures are strewn on and in my desk.  I enjoyed keeping coworkers and guests wondering about me.  I debated throwing them away, but it’s time. Well, maybe I’ll keep the cockroaches. Those are always useful. 🙂

Notes:
I collected dozens of photos to illustrate this blog but decided the text was visual enough.  Sometimes less is more.

I have more text floating in my head that will become permanent in the days to come.  The photos will be included at that time.