“The blog is going to have to come down.”

The words were direct and to the point, like a cold slap. A call from corporate was unexpected, but even that realization didn’t make the statement any less alarming. I’d expected something positive: a new article topic, a traveling assignment or, my greatest desire, a full-time job offer. Instead, I was faced with the abrupt end of something I had spent the last two-and-a-half years creating.

“I understand,” I heard myself mutter, as if I was in some distant, hollow room. In reality, the opposite was true; I couldn’t even begin to understand. All I really knew was that my company had a new CEO and his vision didn’t include me or my blog.

I was devastated.

I began chronicling my life as a Hooters Girl more than two years prior. More specifically, I started a blog and, very quickly, a new job took over. After that happened, there was no stopping it. My readership steadily — then dramatically — grew. I got noticed and just over a year later, I had an actual column in Hooters Magazine.

In what seemed like no time at all, I had gone from a Hooters Girl with a blog to a writer who happened to work at Hooters. One week I found myself bartending, and the next I was updating a multinational corporation’s social media outlets from a white sand beach in Miami. That was the moment I really thought I had made it.

Life isn’t that easy, however. Believe it or not, you don’t just wake up, get lucky and fall into dream jobs with billion dollar corporations. Corporate America isn’t so kind and forgiving, it seems. One person changed — albeit an important one — and suddenly, I was dispensable. The dream, the job and the opportunity were all gone after one abrupt phone call.

My immediate reaction was utter devastation. I actually mourned the loss of everything I had created. I cried and swore and pouted. It felt as if I was losing a part of myself with no ability to get it back. My blog, the column and the corporate job I thought was a certainty had become what defined me and without it, I became very unsure of myself.

It didn’t take long for the devastation to give way to a feeling of deep inadequacy. It seemed to me that I had lost my great opportunity, which in turn made me feel like a total disappointment. Clearly, I was destined to be an unsuccessful person. I had failed, so I must be a failure.

Months passed. With corporate blessing, I changed the site and once again I was just a Hooters Girl who also happened to blog. While I became less outwardly upset, I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that my opportunity had passed me by. The negativity consumed me.

One day, without warning, I had my gestalt. I was at the gym, halfway through a cardio session, when I simply decided to stop feeling sorry for myself. It might seem oversimplified, but it came that easily. In less time than it had taken them to tell me to end my blog, I had decided that all the thoughts that had been rolling through my head had no business being there. The blog never defined me and neither did losing it. I was more than a job and words on a page.

The fact is, even though I’m not writing in magazines or traveling the world or acting as a social media guru today, I still had the experience. More importantly, I created the opportunity that allowed me to have all those experiences. I could have been one of 17,000 Hooters Girls content with serving wings and beer. Instead, I took a somewhat menial job, made it into something marketable for myself and was recognized for my abilities.

What I realize now is that sometimes the opportunity isn’t in the destination, but the journey. There are even times when the opportunity actually lies in discovering something about yourself and your capabilities. Regardless of how things end up, the result has no effect on the fact that you have amazing strengths and drive that will eventually get you someplace worth going. Some roads are dead ends, some are detours, but eventually you’ll get to where you need to be.

All of this has taught me how important it is to realize that not every venture will turn into success. Or at least not into the success you might initially expect. I also accept that accomplishments come in all sizes, big and small, and even when you feel like you’ve accomplished nothing, odds are that’s not the case.

Sometimes what feels like failure really isn’t failure at all, but rather an opportunity to take stock of all you have to offer and redirect it. I, for one, look forward to taking my drive and passion and applying it to a new venture, whether it works out or not.

No matter the outcome, I welcome the journey.

Saskia Boogman
Contributor | I Want Her Job

Image Credit | D. Sharon Pruitt