Alma Barreto on What Truly Matters in Life

I remember being in high school and talking with my best friend Uriel about our big plans—what we’d do when we “grew up.” He wanted to be an accountant, and I wanted to be a writer. Then my father unexpectedly lost his job after decades of service. He looked for months for a new job but struggled to find a company that wanted to hire someone at the end of their career.

Suddenly, there was no more romantic thinking about what some distant future me would grow up to be. If I wanted my family to continue to have food and a home, I had to grow up immediately. So I quit school and started looking for a job.

When you’re fresh out of high school, it's really difficult to find a job that's going to provide for a whole family. Thankfully, I found a job in a bank because it took my dad about three years to find a job after he was laid off. I’m grateful that they provided me with such a good education and emphasized the need to do well in my English classes so that I could get a quality job and not have to work several smaller part-time jobs. I’m proud that I was able to step up and support my family during that time of need. I was also able to help support Uriel’s family, who had fallen on hard times, too.

I’ve been working ever since, and I’m 25 now. About four years later, I decided to look for a different job because there wasn’t a good sense of team, and I think teamwork is essential to be successful. My family functions as a team, and I want to work collaboratively with my colleagues. We are all stronger together, in every capacity.

When I interviewed for the position at SpotOn, as a young woman, it was so inspiring to me to see that the two leaders I’d be working with were both women. They lead with a teamwork mindset that I truly value. I think what I appreciate about my work as a Customer Support Specialist at SpotOn is that I am motivated by helping my family—everyone knows this! My bosses, my colleagues, even my customers. And it turns out that the way to help them is by helping other people.

My dad and I were talking the other day, and he said it’s not about the things we learn but the context in which we learn things. When people hear my story, I think they feel bad for me because my path took an unexpected turn. But I am grateful for all I’ve learned and how much I’ve grown. To realize what truly matters. Honestly, if my father had not lost his job, I don’t know if I could’ve learned as much as I did about myself at such a young age. What a gift to be given the opportunity to discover the true depths of my love for my family at such a young age in my life.