Many years ago, (I think about 8?) I was at a big upheaval in my life. I had broken up with my boyfriend of almost ten years, had settled myself into a new apartment, managed to sprain my ankle something awful and on a whim I sent in an application to Harmonix, the makers of Rock Band, because they were looking for someone to help out with their social media.

I honestly didn’t think I had a shot – I was really just a big fan and I used social media a lot and those were my two major qualifications. Of course, this was before the job title of “Social Media Manager” was a thing, so there weren’t people who had focused on using these sites for marketing in college yet. Twitter, Facebook – they were all still very new.

So I was laid up at home with this messed up ankle and Harmonix emailed to ask if I could do a phone interview. I was shocked but figured why not! I had never done a phone interview before so I had no idea what to expect. It was weird sitting in my apartment, trying to find the best spot for reception (ah first gen iPhone) and chatting with the person about the job and my skills.

And then they offered me the job.

And I didn’t know what to do. This was the first time I’d been in a situation like this – where I had applied for a job while already gainfully employed, not desperate for a position. It was also the first interview I had been to where they asked me up front (library interviews tend to be panels and they will “let you know” in a week). So I was totally caught off guard. Honestly, I should have asked to think about it but I don’t think I knew that was an option back then.

And this was my Sliding Doors moment.

If you’ve never seen the movie, Sliding Doors is about a woman who leaves for work late one morning and misses her train…or does she? In the film, we see both lives play out and the different directions she goes into just because of that one simple incident.

So, anyway, I think of this as that moment in my life, that there was a split and in another universe, there is a version of me that was brave enough to uproot herself completely and move to Boston and work in a whole new industry. I woke up this morning wondering what her life turned out like…don’t know why, but my guess is the monotony of quarantine for over a month is starting to get to me and I’m fantasizing about just being somewhere else.

But my choice was to stay put, to say where my family and friends were and the job that I had always known. A bit boring, I guess. That really would have been the time to do something risky and blame it on the folly of youth. But, then again, I stayed in Maryland and got myself together and I am damn good at my job.

OH but the biggest takeaway was during that interview, I was told I was a “Brand Evangelist”. It was a word I had never heard before, but it really summed up my behaviors pretty well. When I am a fan of your product, your person, I will promote you to everyone I know. And I’m totally sincere about it. If something brings me joy, I want other people to know about it so they can be happy too. I do this with the library now, popping up in twitter threads to recommend books and online services to anyone who will listen. I do it for my favorite YouTube channels, like Dicebreaker, OutsideXtra, and OutsideXbox. I do it for Her Universe. And I’m proud of my ability to fangirl – erm, I mean – to be a Brand Evangelist.

Anyway, this was just a weird thing I was thinking about and I felt like sharing so there ya go.

Do you have a “Sliding Doors” moment that you sometimes look back on?