An #outofrona Reinvention

Every one of you has a #fuckcovid story, I’m not that special. Which is a funny sentence, because let’s face it, I think I’m special. My friend Angela once gave me a placard that says, “I’m kind of a big deal,” and I shamelessly set it out on my work desk. But now, it sits on a new desk. This is my story of how the pandemic has forced an ego adjustment and a #outofrona reinvention that was actually a long time coming. 

I lost my job of 20 years when this all started. But, I filled the gap quickly and swiftly. In the first month, I jumped into my husband’s metal fabrication business (actually, I’m a co-owner, but I was never so involved) and took on a part-time job at a clinic that was offered to me the day I was let go. I helped my young adult children move to new homes and adjust to new jobs and reorganized the metal business’ operations department to make our month end reporting easier. 

Behind the scenes, I wondered what people would think. What is this 53-year-old who spent most of her career at one organization in her hometown going to do now? I thought I was kind of a big deal wearing fancy clothes in my former career. What will people think of me getting dirty and learning to WELD? And my other job checking in patients? Will anyone know it’s ME who’s also ghostwriting their social media? 

Under the cloak of Covid-19 restrictions, I used my chattiness on social media to shamelessly create the scene for my new life, but mostly to let that scene settle into my spinning head. I launched #summerofshelly, an ode to my next chapter, undefined, a don’t ask me if I found a job yet – let’s just have fun vibe.  The summer was filled with covid-friendly activities like me and Phil eating on the boat, and dinner cruises, which meant more eating on the boat, and tagging small businesses, mainly our take-out dinners for the boat, to “support local”.

I posted pictures of me bending metal, with little makeup, steel toed boots, and mismatched clothes. I made cute things out of metal and people bought it and suddenly I was a metal artist who found her true joy. Reinvention blossoming.  

Bending metal!

At the clinic, I am with a like-minded health community, and I know I thrive in that environment. I could feel my creativity blooming, free from the restrictions I had in my old corporate life. I was around people, and I was really digging into small business functionality. My brain was going into overdrive, but it wasn’t exhausting me like it used to. 

Reinvention was indeed beginning, but not quite manifesting because I still wondered, what are people really thinking? 

I posted a video of me welding, and my son messaged me that I did it wrong. I held up the wrong tool, but all in all, he said, “It’s cute.” I got nervous and thought, “What are people thinking?”

As I ponder this gaffe, I remember my former co-worker and now friend Laura once said, “No one is thinking about you that much.” 

Still, my obsession with the quality of my In the Shop with Shell videos can take over my mind. Will people understand my humor, my niche?  Laura also wisely added, “What people think about you is none of your business.”

That mantra has helped me to trust new opportunities as they present themselves and let the universe sort out the rest. I opened myself up to a whole new world of ideas and people and experiences. And because of that, I opened myself up to joy.  While my closest friends had to bear witness to the grittier parts of the reinvention (thank you Alice, Alyssa, Kristin, and Sharon), I hope to lend them a hand when they are faced with whatever #outofrona sets up for them. I’ve been around the sun enough times to know each and every one of us comes to the same plateau and has to choose a new path, a reinvention of self. I hope to empower others to accept the shift, to pivot, and to try something completely different if it trips your trigger. 

How do you know when you’ve made it through, to a full on reinvention? One day I felt hungry for tomorrow. Not dread or worry. No Sunday night panic attack. Hungry for the next day. I marvel at that peace of mind, to be hungry, and not for pizza. 

#SummerofShelly has concluded. It had to, only because after October it’s weird. I jokingly created #PhilFallFollies to slide into the next season, an ode to my husband who certainly could use his own parade after all this. I pause and think, what will …wait…I really don’t care what you think about it. 

But you can join us, it’s really fun. 

Michele and I met when we both wrote and served on the Editorial Board for the Queen of the Castle magazine. We each other’s fashion style and energy and have stayed connected for over 10 years, making a point to walk and talk to catch up when I’m in Wisconsin.

Michele is a former career healthcare marketer attempting semi-retirement. In reality, she’s radically transitioning into manufacturing, specifically, metal fabrication, working alongside her husband, Phil, in the business they have co-owned since 2014. This move prompted her spin-off business, One L Metals, the design and art branch of B & D Metal Fab, and a whole new set of topics for blogs. 

The Wisconsin native is also the proud mom of two young adults, one a U of M engineering graduate (son) and a teacher/United States Air Force Guardsman (daughter). B & D Metal Fab is proudly veteran owned/50% female owned. Michele is a champion for small business and is working towards increased involvement in the local community and Chippewa County economic development. 

To connect with Michele, find her on Facebook @OneLMetals or onelmetals@yahoo.com.

One L

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