So who is "G"? (pt. 2)

Farhad, Nikolas, and I tackled each challenge as they came head on.  With the purchase of our new home and the addition of our youngest member, Dominik, the chapters of our love story soon seemed as if they would write themselves.  With the turning of each page, however, a part of me was ready to resume the other story that I barely got the chance to start.  With a prelude like it had, though, I was eager to return to my property management career.

Rewind 6 years to August of 2001.  I was your typical "small girl in a big town", fresh out of high school and away from home for the first time.  Ellicott City, Maryland was 3,000 miles behind me and all I had to do was focus onward.  Only the University of California, Berkeley was in my sight, and classes were scheduled to start in the New Year, meaning I had only four months to get myself prepared.  First on my list was to get a job - any job.  So I perfected my resume, printed a couple dozen on parchment paper, and hit the busiest block in the business district.  From one office to the next, I handed out my resume.  As luck (or fate) would have it, I had one resume left as I walked into the last building on the block - Prudential California Realty.  Unfortunately, Prudential didn't have any openings.  But their property management division, Professional Property Management, did.  Get this - their Spanish Administrator was leaving on maternity leave, and they needed someone bilingual to fill in for...yes, four months!

Thank God for Senora Doyle's Spanish 5 AP class, and, of course, the cute guy that I shared an office with, who showed me the ropes, and took me to lunch a bunch of times (Farhad)!  Management agreements, leases, tenant apps, credit checks, walkthroughs, inspections, and work orders soon became part of my daily vocabulary.  And I just fell in love.  Why, you ask?  It's the challenge - the same reason I am actually enjoying writing my blog right now.  Property management is not an easy industry.  It is the ups and downs of the Real Estate market, it is sales, negotiation, customer service, technology, organization, and so much more.  You have to be logical, mechanical, and compassionate all at once.  It doesn't only take my strengths, but my weaknesses, too.

Four months led to four years because of a few personal challenges.  With the announcement of my engagement to Farhad, I lost my family's financial backing for Cal so I had to keep on working.  (I use the words "had" and "working" loosely.  I was and still am, obviously, enjoying my job, and it only seldom feels like "work".)  I transferred schools to release myself from the clenches of out-of-state tuition, resolved my family woes and we became one big happy family again, I got married to the man of my dreams, and continued to build on my career, until I put it on hold to move back East.

Fast forward to April 30, 2007, and I'm walking through the doors of Tidewater Property Management, Inc. ...

So who is "G"? (pt. 1)

This whole blog idea intimidates me to say the least.  I don't even know if I should say that.  Maybe starting off by showing vulnerability is completely the wrong way to go.  But, I don't know any other way to show you who this person is that thinks she has something worth saying, without mentioning that this blog is one of the toughest challenges I am currently facing.  I can't even write a sentence without referring to myself in both the first and third person!  But that's the last time, I promise.  Bear with me and I might actually say something worth reading.

So who am I?  First and foremost, I am a wife and a mother.  At least that is how I would describe myself first - I am a romantic completely in love with my husband, Farhad, and the love story that we started almost 10 years ago.  We met at a property management firm in California (and I will get back to the property management thing later...).

Farhad and I started with one of the biggest of odds against us - an age barrier of 15 years.  But we decided that it would only be a barrier if we let it.  So we didn't let it, and 8 months later we were married.  Our wedding song - You're Still the One by Shania Twain.  "I bet they'll never make it," she sings.  Sound like a challenge?

After I graduated college, we were eager to have a baby and before we knew it, we had Nikolas.  Mom intrigued us with her request for us to move back East so that she could be close to her first grandchild.  We did, but not before going to the Philippines for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary.  One day, Farhad and I will be celebrating that same momentous occasion, and Shania will sure be a part of the celebration.

The move to Maryland was tough in many ways.  Do you know how expensive it is to move across the country?  From one coast to the other, we dragged our young family to start anew, bringing a few things, but leaving far more behind.  The property management firm that I mentioned earlier (where a separate, but equally strong, love story began) was now 3,000 miles away.