In Real Life

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day for a wedding.

Cool enough for a light jacket, but not so cool that I couldn't wear my open-toed shoes.

Surrounded by coworkers and their families and friends, the air was filled with laughter, love and the anticipation of a beautiful outdoor ceremony.

I took a deep breath, savoring the moment.

And then...

I felt a tap on my shoulder from one of my friends/former coworkers in the row behind me.

She laughed and tugged at something on the back of my jacket.

I turned around and there it was - a blue tag attached just under the arm.

I had forgotten to take the tag off my jacket before wearing it!

Not the first time this has happened to me, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

We shared a smile and a laugh and I quickly took the tag off and tucked it into my jacket pocket.

I don't think I had worn that jacket before, but couldn't be sure. I winced at the thought that I might have worn it to other events and no one was nice enough to point it out to me.

Oh well - what are you going to do, right? I'm only human.

Shortly after that, the ceremony started and we were all caught up in the moment, celebrating two amazing young people starting their lives together.

I've worked at this company for almost 3 years now, and most of the time I'm remote so we work together over video calls and emails and chats.

This type of work arrangement can make it harder to form real, personal relationships with people.

Work can become the primary focus and it's easy to lose sight of the fact that the people behind the screen have real lives going on outside of the day to day projects we are trying to accomplish.

Being at this wedding made me think a lot about that.

To see a coworker in love, and hear his family and friends talk about the amazing relationship he and his now wife have, gave me a new perspective on all of it.

Dancing the night away, in real life, with people I spend 90% of the time only on screen with, filled my heart.

Laughing over drinks with my boss, my peers, and the team members I lead, was exactly what I needed.

We spend so much time behind a screen - it's important to get out from behind it and actually be together once in awhile - physically, in person and IRL (in real life).

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do that yesterday.

And for the opportunity to work with this group of people.

The opportunity to get to know them just a little bit more, in a beautiful new context.

And the opportunity to remind myself that we are all human beings.

Just trying to figure out life.

All making mistakes as we go, and (hopefully) learning from them.

I'll try to do better from now on and check my jackets for tags before I leave the house.

But if I forget, I hope that wherever I'm going, I'm surrounded by people who will point it out to me and share a laugh over the humanity of it all.

Here's to "real life" and being in it!

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