I have been running and cycling all over my neighborhood during the summer months and nearly getting smooshed in the process. Cars, motorcycles, other cyclists, and even walkers don’t expect me to come around a curve or to pop over a hill. There have been a few near misses. While they need to be aware of their surroundings, they also need to ditch their developed sense of expected future. Don’t we all?
I have developed that same sense of expected unexpected when dealing with my sisters. I know if I get an unexpected phone call at 10:30 in the evening, I know which sibling it will be. If there’s an email greeting card in the inbox, I know it’s mom on-line. I don’t even have to open the early Christmas cards to know it’s my sister Theresa. But one day they will surprise me, hopefully in a pleasant way.
Unfortunately we encounter a similar thought process in the world of career women. We are expected to get out of college, get a good job, wait a few years, find a nice guy, marry, wait a few years, have a baby or two, wait a few years, get a promotion and after that we are expected to disappear. We are expected to move on and make room for the next batch of women who will do the same thing. That’s unfair.
Society railroads us because they didn’t expect us to go back to school or further our degree. They didn’t expect us to run our own businesses or to get divorced so young. Newsflash: They can’t tell the future any better than the guy in the truck who nearly flattened me because I came down the hill when he expected to back out onto an empty road.
I applaud those companies and organizations who hire the 20-somethings right along with the 40-somethings and the 50-somethings. Women don’t just disappear. We are able to be vet techs at 20 just as enthusiastically at age 39. We are able to have the unexpected talents that can better the company, society and the world.
An example: At an interview the director of the company and I sat down and did the small talk thing. “Have any trouble finding he place?” he asked. “No,” I said. I told him that I had gone online, gotten a map and did a dry run drive by on the weekend before the interview. He was shocked. He did not expect that a woman would do that kind of research and put that much forethought into an interview. I still didn’t get the job. I wasn’t what they expected. And you know that scares some people.
Go ahead -- scare some people. Be unexpected. Just watch out for that guy in the truck.
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Bernadette Sukley |
| About the author: |
| Bernadette Sukley has written, edited, fact checked for nearly 20 years. Her topics range from health to sports and lifestyle, from human interest to hard news. Her work has appeared in Men’s Health, Sports Illustrated for Women, and ABROAD magazines. Currently polishing up 3 novels for publication, she welcomes discussions on women and literature.
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