Reflecting on 10 years ago and God's Plan vs My Plan

Today I was driving into the office and realized that it's been about 10 years since I first starting working in real estate.  CRAZY! I just started reflecting on how God had such a different plan for me back then than I was wanting and it is amazing to see how that all turned out.

You see 10 years ago I was finishing up my junior year at Texas. I needed to find an internship that summer but I also needed to make a little money. After searching around I found this amazing opportunity to intern at a Law Firm here in Austin with their events coordinator and it PAID! I was so excited and wanted it really bad. I went through several interview rounds, even planning a mock event. In the end, it came down to me and one other person and I didn't get the job. I was so bumbed. I was convinced this would be something I would love to do when I graduated. I was majoring in Corporate Communications and was really looking at doing event planning. I had fallen in love with the idea of this job. To say I was crushed would be an understatement.

I had applied for two other internships, one with the Austin Film Festival and one with the Make a Wish Foundation. I was offered a job at both places, but in the end decided on Make a Wish. Only bad part was it was non paid, which meant I needed to find another job to make some money that summer. Since I had started college I had worked in retail off and on in the mall, but I was so over doing that.

Then an opportunity opened up. You see 2 of my really good friends had worked the year before at a real estate office doing front desk work. One of my friends was graduating and the other got an internship for the fall out of state. So this office had 2 openings coming up. I interviewed and I got the job!

I worked for 2 developers that had their real estate license but did several different kinds of real estate. They developed commercial and residential properties, owned and managed commercial and residential as well. So I started to learn such a large scope of real estate that year. Then there was Samantha and she managed their office for them, but also had her real estate license and did a lot of residential work with sellers and buyers. Throughout that year they all urged me to get my real estate license. If anything, just to help friends find lease properties in college or when they graduated and stayed in Austin.

So over my senior year I slowly took all my real estate classes and tests and eventually got my license right after I graduated college. Around that time, Samantha had decided to get her broker's license and start her own real estate company and so I decided to work under her and the rest they say is history.

It is just amazing to look back over the last 10 years (9 years having my license). God had a different plan for me than what I had envisioned and look how that worked out! I met some amazing people along the way that became great friends. I have enjoyed helping people find places to live and help people sell their homes. I truly enjoy getting to help people in this career. And now having kids, this is the best job I could have because of the flexibility. I can be present for my kids much more than a normal 9-5 job, but still help contribute to our household income. God couldn't have planned anything more perfect for me. Even when we might be upset when God shuts one door, know that He does have a plan and look, it will probably end up being better than the plan you had for yourself!