This year has been crazy for me so far—both personally and professionally. My life has changed so much in the past few months; some of the changes have been for the better, and some have been incredibly stressful.
There were two earthshaking changes this past month at work. First, NewBay Media was acquired by Future plc. It’s a really exciting move for us and I can’t wait to see what the future (pun intended) brings.
The second change affects not only me, but SCN as a whole. Matt Pruznick, our former senior content producer, is now content director for AV Technology magazine. Matt has been dutifully correcting my grammar and punctuation since day one, as he did with the editors before me; he’s also beautifully portrayed some of the industry’s most innovative installations. It’s a big loss for the SCN team, and I’m incredibly sad to lose him. But I’m also really, really happy for him—to say that I’m excited to see what he does with the publication would be an understatement.
With these major shifts, on top of others in my life, I started to feel a bit unsteady. Am I using “affect” versus “effect” correctly? Will the day-to-day of my job change? Is this issue going to get out the door while we’re in the midst of these personnel changes? How will I manage the chaos that comes with change? Will I fail or will I rise and grind?
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore—I had to pause, take a deep breath, and step back for a moment from all of my internal interrogation. The unknown is scary. Change is hard, but change is constant. There may be times in our lives when change comes crashing down in abundance, like what I’m experiencing today. There will be other times when change is slow and steady. But it will always be there, lurking around the corner.
One thing I’ve discovered is that, at the end of the day, it’s how I’m managing all of those changes that really determines my attitude. Ultimately, I’m deciding my own destiny. If I’m viewing change as a stressor and a burden, that’s what it will become. If I’m welcoming change as an opportunity to do new and different things, that’s also what it will become. So I have a choice to make: Do I want to wallow in the uncertainness of the new era? Or do I want to soar into InfoComm with my girl boss attitude? I’m choosing the latter.
