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Writer's pictureCym Glasheen

Same place, different me

Back in March 2020, I had 5 customer on-sites planned all over Los Angles and San Diego. Covid was just starting to spread and as a company, we had just done a “work from home” test day to see if we could successfully operate in this “new normal”. I had 5 meetings, 5 hotels, 2 flights, and 1 car rental all booked ready to go, and my company supported me in going given, we didn’t really know much about the severity of this pandemic.


I was flying over the Rocky Mountains, when I got a Slack message from my VP of Sales, telling me that she changed her mind and didn’t think I should go. It was a little too late for that…

When I landed at LAX, she suggested that I hop back on the next plane to Boston. I emailed and called all my customers that I was planning to meet up with and I let them know that I was in LA but completely understood if they did not want to meet given the uncertainty of what this illness could be. I got 4 hard nos and 1 yes. The yes – of course, was from the customer the furthest away in San Diego.


I canceled all my hotel reservations from the airport gate where I had landed, found a new hotel in San Diego for the night, picked up my rental car, and started the drive. Once I got to the hotel, I settled in and called my customer to finalize our meet-up plans. We ended up meeting at his own pizza place the next day for lunch. We were able to “social distance” and talk through their Salsify usage and goals while eating some of the best pizza.


After my meeting with my customer, I had a few hours before my new return flight home and decided to go for a drive along the coast. I stopped at this outlook where my customer recommended I check out and I am incredibly happy that I did. It was the last “vacation” I took before we went into serious lockdown and eating my leftover pizza on top of a beach cliff overlooking about a hundred seals splashing in the water reminded me that despite the unprecedented times that things would be okay.

Fast forward to February 26th, 2022 – I was able to revisit that cliff and reflect on the past two years. It’s fascinating to be in the same place yet feel like a completely different person. The seals were still splashing around and the flowers that were there two years ago were still blooming. It’s so easy to become wrapped up with life these days that this moment back at this same place made it clear that I have truly grown up.



Just to give you an idea of how much I have changed in the past two years here is part of my list… (I will spare you the time and just share these key wins)


  1. I am engaged and live with my fiancé in a house we rent in a beautiful suburban town

  2. I am now a Senior Customer Success Manager and when I was last here I was an Account Manager

  3. I have traveled to DC x2, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont

  4. I am now a girl who wears SPF almost every day thanks to skincare TikToks

  5. I am in two networking groups & have met so many incredible people who have completely shaped my career in ways I never could imagine

  6. I have made many new lifelong friends that I didn’t have before and strengthened the relationships with the ones I had previously

  7. I say No a lot more

  8. I say Yes a whole lot less

  9. I have been working with both a coach and therapist and younger me would be so proud for getting help

  10. I have this blog!

These last two years have been so hard. Two years ago, I used to be afraid to show up as my true authentic self and if you told 2020 me, right as I boarded that plane that I would have achieved the above in just two years, I would have laughed in your face.


I used to hide so much of who I am to make everyone around me feel comfortable and what the past two years taught me is that we are all human and all have our own battles to fight. For me mine are around – mental illness, depression, anxiety, and the pressure I put on myself to be a perfect and hyper achiever but over the last two years I have begun to accept that these are part of who I am and how I show up!

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