This day last year, was my very last day in Corporate America.

I remember the feeling of euphoria I felt as I packed up my generic desk, said goodbye to my cubicle, relinquished my parking pass and walked home. I remember how good it felt to take off my business attire as soon as I got home and know that I’d never, ever have to fix another copier.

I was ready to leave to corporate world and anxious to embrace the creative one. Because I was making such a dramatic change in my life, I saw things as black and white. Corporate world bad, Writing Life good.

At the time, I didn’t have the experience, wisdom, or time to see that seeing things that way was just not fair. I hadn’t had the distance yet to appreciate my corporate job and instead, I used it as an argument.

The truth is, I needed the Corporate World.

My first corporate job gave us stability and money that was crucial at the time. My soon to be husband and I had and I had just driven across country to move to Seattle. All we owned was in our little beat up Toyota. We were also dealing with immigration and a wedding coming up. We had to find a place to live, buy groceries and get established. By landing a job in the corporate world, I was able to deal with all my financial responsibilities.

But that job was more than just financially beneficial. By working in three different corporate jobs I learned skills that have become essential now that I am running my own business. Things such as marketing, sales, communication, time management, multitasking, presentation, responsibility, organisation and yes, how to collate. I learned how to focus, be professional, pull all-nighters, how to ask for what I want and how to get it and most importantly, I learned that I am a fantastic, hard worker.

The other thing I learned, which is perhaps the most important, is that I will do what it takes to survive.

My second corporate job, though in an amazing company that paid me very well, was in fact, horrible. My boss, the Vice President, was extremely verbally abusive. During my 10 months there, 19 out of 23 people in his department had quit. I wanted to leave, badly, but at the time my husband wasn’t working and we had rent to pay and groceries to buy. I didn’t have the luxury of quitting a job I hated to become something less secure. I had to stay in that job so that my husband and I could survive. And we did.

At the time it seemed hard and unfair, but the truth is, it was reality. It was something I had to do to get me where I am today. Without the Corporate World I wouldn’t have grown up and learned certain business and people skills that I needed. Without the Corporate World I wouldn’t have been able to pay rent or help my family survive. Without the Corporate World being a writer wouldn’t mean so much to me.

People often ask me if I could go back, would I have skipped the corporate world altogether? When I answer no they’re often surprised. I did what I had to do, and a person can always learn from that. The only thing I would do differently is to not let the corporate world take over me as it did. I would have tried to find a way to let the writer in me come out, even if only during lunch breaks.

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