The Lesson I Learned this Week is: Boundaries are Important!
While working at a nonprofit with youth, I met "X", a Teen Adviser. With X, it was like looking into a mirror at my future and it made me cringe. I know I definitely do not want a life like theirs – like at all. X has zero personal boundaries. They text the teens, call them at 10 PM if they have had a bad day, Facebook stalks them, rides around the neighborhood to catch them up to no good, and takes them out to lunch? “Thanks for being the middle man”, X says to another teen who help arrange lunch plans with a teen boy, “you know how it is.” X literally has no boundaries. She even acknowledged she didn’t in a “ta hell with boundaries!” way.
This really scared me and rattled my professional self. After leaving Girls Inc. I understood the importance of boundaries better and how I lacked them. Getting to know X further exemplified the need for those boundaries. I don’t ever want to eat, sleep, breathe another organization because that is a strong indicator I’m not taking care of me. While I was boundary-less Deb I was so unhappy. I want more to live for than work so the lesson learned this week is boundaries are important.
Obviously, their name wasn't "X" but I like privacy y'all!
Debbie