I’ve been flirting with fantasy for a long time now. In an ideal world, I would not only get to have the delicious ice cream sundae with a nice, big cherry on top but I would eat it too and even go back for seconds, and not even have to think about the calories. One of my goals in life is to be a successful CEO of my own magazine company, but I’ve found as a successful woman that it is much more difficult to get “the cherry”, or in my case, the guy, too. Despite the great amount of success I have had in my school and work life, I used to feel like none of that mattered because I did not have someone at my side to share it with. In high school, I sadly remember wishing to trade in my success as student body president or my amazing grades just for a boyfriend. I never have, nor do I think I will ever, understand this “mystical” spell that the male species has over women, but I am hoping that this blog post will act as an antidote to its destructive presence in the lives of women everywhere.

His name was Walker and before I came along he was the top sales representative in my office. This summer I worked for a marketing company distributing kitchen cutlery, which I discovered that my uncle had done 10 years before. When I told my Mom about the job she scoffed at me and told me that I was no salesman like my uncle. Yet within my first weekend out on the job, I sold $3,000 worth of product, the fastest of anyone in my office. I used to hate the thought of coming into the office once a week or going to a business conference but once I met Walker, my enthusiasm and thus my success continued to grow. Even though being successful at this job would have meant having an amazing resume booster and given me valuable business experience, not to mention a nice pay day, I only attempted to do well  at the job because it meant I would get to spend more time with Walker. Interestingly enough, when I finally surpassed Walker in sales, however, he unexpectedly disappeared. Week after week I would inquire his whereabouts from my boss, who would only reply, “He’ll be back next week.” Sadly that “next week” never came and when I finally realized this, my enthusiasm and thus my sales began to suffer. I had lost my appetite for the job even when I had a plentiful feast right in front of my face. I knew that letting some guy, that I barely even knew, affect my job performance was so ridiculously stupid but I wanted it all and for some reason the greater powers of the world did not want me to have it. Stubbornly, I starved myself of the success I knew I had worked hard towards all summer for the next few weeks. I was hindering no one but myself. The summer just seemed to drag along after Walker’s abrupt departure but fittingly enough, his absence forced me to reach out to my other successful co-workers; his absence allowed me and my boss to grow closer as friends as we both tried to deal with the loss; his absence allowed me to realize that I actually really loved this job.

At the end of the summer I ended up selling over $15,000 worth of product, won a President’s club award, was in the top ten for sales reps in New England for July and finished the summer at #14 in the top 25 reps of the summer in New England. Not only did I make my Mom eat her words which she willingly took a huge bite out of, but I proved to myself that no man or person is necessary to complete my success; they are simply the cherry on top of the sundae and I don’t even like cherries that much.