I got my first big-girl promotion a couple of weeks ago (WOOOOOOOOO!), and couldn’t help but be transported back to elementary school.

When I was in the third grade, we were given ‘camping’ care packages by our parents for an in-classroom camping experience.

One by one throughout the course of the school week classmates would be called on via the room’s announcement system that they had a special delivery arriving ahead of our great adventure.

I waited and waited for my name to be called by the front desk secretary and started to get upset as time went on and I still didn’t receive a package.

After I got off the bus that Thursday feeling defeated from all of my friends getting a camping package while I still hadn’t (a first world problem, mind you), I explained to my mom my frustration.

Turns out, being the stellar planner and incredible momma that she is, she had already placed a perfectly wrapped box on the shelf while she was volunteering for the PTA a few days prior.

I still think about the deconstructed s’mores she put in there to this day and how thoughtful the gesture had been. I just needed to be patient.

Fast forward to today’s time and in an office building, the same waiting game of anticipation of an outcome unfolded right before my eyes.

It was a Tuesday afternoon when I got an ominous Teams chat from one of my best friends at work denoting that the cat was out of the bag. People in our Leadership Development Program cohort were starting to get tapped that they had been promoted.

Knowing that by the time I left work that day that my fate would be finalized, either I would get promoted or I wouldn’t, made my stomach get butterflies and heart start racing.

And then the intrusive thoughts crept in.

What if the work I’ve put in these past few months juggling a workload with increased responsibilities wasn’t enough? What if how much I thought I’ve grown so hasn’t been reflected in my work?

What if…What if…What if…

And then at 3PM my boss asked me if I had a second to chat.

Poker face on, we found a meeting room and he told me the news.

I HAD BEEN PROMOTED TO AN ASSOCIATE MERCHANDISE PLANNER!!!

While trying to control my excitement I felt a wave of relief ripple through me.

We did it – I DID IT!

This was a goal I had set out for myself to achieve since starting 16 months ago, and finally getting to this moment feels surreal.

I’ve learned more in this almost year-and-a-half timeframe at this job about business and who I am as a person than I have in my entire life up until this point. Growth was promised, and boy has it been delivered.

The hopefulness to receive a camping care package in the third grade and now a promotion goes to show that you never truly know what’s going on behind the scenes until the situation is ready to unfold on its own time. And that’s the beauty of it all – for our expectations to be met and potentially even exceeded and for the out-of-reach to become touchable, even when it seems near impossible.

💘 Hanna