A Taylor-Made Life: ‘If everything’s special, nothing’s special’

In this past week’s Heard on the Street, my former boss and current friend, Lee Provost, wrote a piece about my soon-to-be former boss (but current friend), Carl Maronich. Carl will soon be leaving Riverside Healthcare after 19 years as the director of marketing and communications in order to be closer to home.

I initially met Carl when I was a few months in at the Daily Journal and Riverside opened the then-brand-new orthopedic building in Bourbonnais. From there, I was able to go to him whenever I worked on anything that needed insight from a local health care expert.

We would meet for breakfast or lunch once or twice a year to chat about what was new at the hospital system and swap stories on journalistic endeavors (Carl’s career started at the Dixon Telegraph). His writing has since taken a creative turn, and he’s now a playwright.

When the opportunity arose to work in Riverside’s marketing department, I hemmed and hawed for quite a while. Ultimately, for various reasons (none of which to do with the aforementioned Mr. Provost), I opted to take the leap and try a new challenge. (If I were my father’s daughter, I’d make an REO Speedwagon reference about how it was “time for me to fly.”)

So for the past seven-and-a-half months, I’ve worked with Carl in a different capacity – as boss and employee. I’ve learned a lot from him in this short amount of time, and – though we’re all sad to see him go – I’m grateful to have gotten the chance to have him as a boss and mentor.

He’s shared many words of wisdom, oftentimes with an accompanying anecdote, but I think my favorite Carl-ism is, “if everything’s special, nothing’s special.”

Not everything needs to be celebrated – sometimes things simply “are.” And it’s when the true special things happen that you’re able to see that they are, in fact, special.

One of those moments is now, when I think of how special it was to get to work with Carl. So, thank you, Mr. Maronich, for your wisdom and mentorship – and may the next chapter be the most special yet.