“You can take different roads or different paths, but sometimes your life just goes the direction it’s supposed to go. It just…happens.”
I was born in Missoula, but grew up in St. Maries, a little close-knit logging community. My dad and my grandpa both worked for the railroad there. And my mom owned the beauty shop, so I couldn’t get away with anything. Not that…I mean, I was a pretty good kid.
I didn’t think I was great at school, but I graduated with honors. I attended North Idaho College, where I got a job in the student services office. I found that I really enjoyed advising, so I decided to major in psychology—hoping to get my master’s degree in counseling at some point. I transferred to Western in Bellingham and got a BS in psychology with a minor in sociology. I planned to take a little time off before starting my master’s program, but I ended up taking too much time off.
So I moved to Seattle and got a job as a receptionist at Walsh Construction. I worked there for a few years before I decided I wanted to be closer to home. I started looking for jobs in the Spokane area—any sort of administrative role—and found a Craigslist ad for what I think was called an onsite project coordinator, or maybe it was a project administrator. I responded and was invited to an interview in the job trailer at the Holy Family MOB project—H-470, what would turn out to be my very first Bouten job.
I’ve always wanted to help people—to be available to my friends; to be the person that they could talk to. Maybe it’s selfish, but it feels good to care for other people and that they know they can rely on me. When I first started working in the Spokane office, though, Nancy had already been here five years, Dotty ten, and Joni had been here longer than both. And I thought, Wow, these ladies have it all figured out. I’m never going to compare to them. I’ll never be anyone’s go-to person.
But they all took me under their wing. They were my work moms. From the beginning, they helped me shape my career at Bouten. I just hope that I can do that for someone else. I mean, sometimes I wish I would have gone back to school, but who knows where I’d be if I had done that? My whole life would have been different. Not necessarily better, just different. You can’t think about that.
In the last twenty years it feels like I’ve done almost every role in the office. Bouten has always given me the opportunity to try something else; to learn something new. I always try to apply what I’ve learned to my new position, which helps—especially now with accounting. I mean, in no way, shape, or form did I ever think that I would do accounting. And my high school math teachers would’ve said the same thing. But I like it. It’s fun when everything balances. I never thought I’d say that math is fun, but….
I didn’t know anything about Bouten when I answered that Craigslist ad. I honestly didn’t even mean to work here for more than a year. It was just supposed to get me by while I looked for something closer to what I actually wanted to do. But I’m still here twenty years later. And when people ask me where I work, I’m proud to say that I work for Bouten Construction. This company has supported me in every part of my life. It’s been the one constant thing. While a lot has definitely changed over the years, our core values haven’t. And as long as they stay consistent, our legacy will continue.
