MattMunnell.com

It’s been an interesting 2 years hasn’t it?

Who knew back on February 5 2020 what changes would happen?

What kind of changes have you experienced in the last two years? While many of the changes have been less than positive or maybe even horrible I am betting there has been some positive change as well. I’m going to take a quick look back at my own changes.

On February 5, 2020 I was in my 37 year with The Kroger Company. Little did I know (well…that ain’t true, I had a pretty good idea) that in 22 days I would be “retiring” from the company. What is interesting about this change was that one would think there would be some sadness or something associate with this retirement, especially after spending most of my entire adult life working for Kroger but I experienced no sadness, no depression, no…nothing. Maybe relief, maybe a sense of adventure of what is next. I think this says a lot about the culture of Kroger but that’s a story for another time – or a story just to forget about.

So, immediately upon retirement my wife and I started thinking about Life After Kroger. In fact, we decided to call the business we were going to start just that – LAKE – Life After Kroger Enterprises. We started creating a business plan. We talked with potential partners. We met with the Small Business Administration. We looked at different locations.

Then COVID hit.

Now that was a change. Things pretty much stopped for awhile as we all try to figure out what to do next and how to adjust. It turned out that my retirement helped with this change. I was able to be at home to help navigate the joys of virtual learning. This sucked for everybody involved but at least we all learned about Google Classroom and the kids learning about computers and how to use them effectively ramped up quickly. I think this was one of the benefits of virtual learning. While many folks were complaining about the level of education kids were getting, I was pleased that they were learning the skills of the google equivalent of power point, word and how to navigate and troubleshoot computers/laptops. Sure it was different. Sure it wasn’t the best learning environment but they did gain some valuable experience and so did I. I learned that I sucked as a home school teacher!

Once school for the kids ended and since getting the business going in the new world of covid was on hold I decided to go back to school myself and work toward earning my bachelors degree. I had started college in 1981, got booted out a couple of times and just sort of stopped going after my career with Kroger progressed. A interesting thing here – I stopped going to school when I got going with Kroger and when I stopped going with Kroger I started back at school again. So I enrolled at Columbus State University in May of 2020 and have taken classes every semester since. I am now a senior and should finish up with a degree by the end of this year. A good change indeed.

My kids schools opened back up in the fall of 2020 and, while there was some concern about the spread of covid we made the decision to send them back and not take the virtual option. This ended up being a very good decision. The kids survived but did not thrive in the virtual environment and getting them back to in-person school sparked a great change or rebirth in them. They are both social creatures – take after their Mom – and they needed to be around people. They have been doing well in school since and there have been little to no impact with covid in their schools.

Janet went back to Ethiopia in fall of 2020. Her dad was not doing well and she needed to go see him. While she was there a conflict started between different ethnic groups inside of Ethiopia that continue to this day. I’m afraid once all of the truth comes out from this conflict/war we will find that millions have been impacted by death, destruction, starvation and more. It’s a horrible situation and one that caused us great concern especially when Janet tried to leave the country. She was finally able to get back to us and her Dad improved somewhat – enough to be able to get outside and we were very encouraged. But another big change happened when he passed away a few weeks later in January of 2021 leaving a huge hole in the family and the community. A hole that many families across the globe have experienced in the last two years sadly. We are still working to adjust to him being gone.

With the kids back in school and Janet back home it was time for me to find something to do. While still wanting to start a business, a look at our wallets told us that maybe we should move slow on that project. So I decided to look for a job. Luckily I didn’t have to look too long. I had a couple of offers but the best fit we decided was with Goodwill of Southeast Georgia as a District Manager. It has been a great choice. A very positive change. A change that provoked another life adjustment however. I now needed to figure out how to navigate work and school at the same time. Many do this in the world successfully and I wanted to do so too. It was an adjustment. I took just two classes that first semester of work and school and that allowed me to successfully juggle both. Of course Janet supported me by keeping the family on track.

In the summer of 2021 Janet and I became Grandparents! What a wonderful positive change! Brianna and Thomas had baby Indie and we wish we could see her (and them) everyday but we are very happy with the pictures and videos we get of this beautiful baby.

So here we are in February of 2022. Kids are doing great in school. My own school is going good and work is too. The girls are all Crossfit athletes and loving it. I’ve set a goal to complete a marathon in personal best time by the time i turn 60. We got a dog – Nellie. While there has been a lot of negative things in the past two years and will be moving forward, we as a family like where we are today. Yeah, we’re still living with covid and masks but that ain’t a big deal. Shoot – Eleni was wearing one on a Saturday sitting at the kitchen counter. Sort of counters the argument that kids hate masks. (or maybe my kid is just a little different)

My hope is that everyone can find some positive in the last couple of years and can move forward to a successful, healthy, prosperous 2022.