Finding a silver lining.q

I just a new part time job teaching Spanish to adults in San Marcos. I'm pretty excited about it. I've had some really difficult times lately with a long-term relationship having ended (and possibly the friendship ending as well), the confusion of getting out of school, prepping for the GRE, health issues, and just trying to survive day to day while making "me" time to have fun a little.

In gaining this new job, I've been asked about my future with HEB. I've known for a long time that I would be leaving HEB. However, somebody approached me and told me that "It's time for you to get out and go do something that matters!" Of course, they really want to say that I need to get on to working with my future career as an educator in a class setting. While I admire their wanting to encourage me, I think the person would have done better to phrase it differently.

I do think I've done things at HEB that matter. No, I don't think any of it have to do with my work title. The most I've gotten from that is a diet of fruits and veggies sampled weekly, some physical exercise, and a long strain of patience from dealing with customers. But I must say that my time at my most recent HEB has been unique. I have worked with people at this store that, had I never met them, my life would never have been the same. I was and have been fortunate enough (and still am fortunate enough) to have worked with fellow students that not only could I identify with as peers in school, but that were the kinds of free thinking, discourse oriented people I had come to seek out in Texas State but seldom found. It was in this unexpected environment of a grocery store Produce department that I encountered and still know some of the brightest and forward thinking people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.