gratitude in every goodbye...

Almost 25 years ago, I walked into Thomson Reuters young, fresh and scared to death. My first job out of college, so much to learn about being an adult out in the real world. Time has a sneaky way of quickly passing by…I grew into this new life, I got married, had kids and continued to build my career, right inside these walls. 

I’ve bragged over the years, that over my entire career, there was not one day, that I did not want to go to work. Not one. And for that I will always be grateful. What did change however was the person I came to work as. It took a long time for me to truly find myself at work. For many years I tried out different roles, some were right on, some were not. It was confusing and often caused stress and uncertainty, but I kept seeking and I kept trying. And ultimately the questions got bigger and harder…like “Am I really meant to spend my entire career in technology?” I wondered if one could really shift and change directions mid-career. This curiosity drove me through a 5-year process of complete and total self-reflection and self-study. Who am I? Why am I here? What am I meant to do in this world?

Through that process I had another dream. I wanted my work to align with my purpose and my true passion. Sounds lovely but how do you really do that? For me I started to see that my quest into personal development and growth was a major part of who I was becoming. I wanted to grow and take others with me on the journey. 

Bit by bit I started bringing more of my true self to work; talking to people about what I loved, exploring ideas with others, creating content on the internal employee portal and so much more… By just starting and taking action, eventually it all came into focus when Thomson Reuters decided to embark on our culture shaping journey. I knew immediately, “I HAVE to be a part of this.” And so with great persistence, I wedged my way onto the team and into this brand new world of HR and building an intentional culture… and my purpose was born… to inspire others to bring the best of version themselves to work and to home. 

I’ve never worked harder and never been happier. And because I could show up every day authentically as me, on purpose, on passion…I gave TR the best I had to give and it felt amazing. What if everyone had permission to show up authentically as themselves, to work, every day? It would be a whole new world.

Thanks to my beginnings here and this opportunity to truly transform my career, I am equipped and I am ready for my “new world”. It’s time for me to see what it looks like to bring my life’s work out and into the world. I am ready.

The gratitude I feel for my time at TR runs deep. I am not sure how you thank a place…other than to completely honor it and what it gave me from the bottom of my heart. The people here raised me, supported me, loved me all the way through, for more than half my life. I am overwhelmed by the grace and gift of it all. I will grieve the loss like any other major life change, but the beautiful thing is, these experiences and these people will always be a part of me, that much I know.

So many of you here in my network have been a part of my journey, and for that I am so grateful. Much more to come!

In grace and gratitude. 

TKM~