one reason I love my job

Are there many places where you can go for a year-end meeting with your boss where you talk about yourself and your life 70% of the time and your job 30% of the time? Lucy was (and always has been) genuinely interested in my life outside of work. She cares for her "employees" as if we were her friends and/or children. I'll never forget my first year at St. Andrew's when I'd only been here about 6 weeks and Gran had to have emergency open heart surgery. Because we weren't sure whether or not she'd make it off the operating table (hard to believe we ever doubted that with Gran but the doctors did not paint a pretty picture...clearly they did not know Gran!!!), I was waiting in Texas to see how things went. Lucy came into my office first thing that morning and said, "Why are you here? You need to be with your family. Come on, I'll take you to the airport. Don't worry about anything here. We'll get someone to go on the Pt. Aransas trip for you and someone will cover for your other jobs. Family is important." Two days later I did leave for California, where Gran was recovering, and never once did Lucy say when to be back. She only said to stay in touch and give her love to my mom.
Again today, much like a mother would be, she was super excited about my training, my new friends, and the basic fact that I had time for something other than work. I think she was glad to hear this not only because she cares about me (she's known me since I was 8!) but also because I was pretty convinced that if I threw my name in the hat last year to be Head of Upper School permanently and happened to be chosen, I would not have had a life. Guess since I chose another road, I also chose to really have a life!
Anyway, as always, I left the meeting with Lucy feeling more and more grateful that 13 years ago she basically created a job for me. I've done LOTS of different things at St. Andrew's - everything from coaching to teaching to admissions work to community service to college counseling and interim Head of Upper School. I've really grown up as an adult at St. Andrew's - certainly as a professional. I've always felt grateful to have a job that I look forward to going to each day - a job that I feel like is meaningful. Work is hard no matter what you do, it's a blessing if you can really enjoy it, too. The students, my colleagues, the families...they all make my work better than it would be at another school.
This spring it occurred to me that while I have no family members here in Austin, I have two wonderful "families" - St. Andrew's and T3. And to feel like I'm a valuable member of both "families" fills my heart to overflowing. Again, what a lucky girl I am.