Fast on the heels of my ten favorite foods list from yesterday, today’s exercise is to illuminate you on the best thing that has happened this year. A lack of specifics is what we have here though. Is this supposed to be a calendar year? So, since January 1st? Or is this a full 12 months, so since July 15th of 2012. Maybe this actually means a school year, since it is kind of an educational exercise, but that is even harder since I am not a student and we would be in the middle of summer break anyway. So let’s say we just do this for the last twelve months, and that will enable me to make my new(ish) job fit the bill.
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n December of 2012 I was hired on board as a systems programmer for the Medical University of South Carolina in the pediatrics department. The job is good, the benefits are nice, and the work is interesting, but that is really not what makes this the high point of the year. What makes this job the best thing to happen to me over the past year is that they sought me out for it. Correction, my now-boss sought me out for the job. It means a lot when someone specifically comes to you when you are not even looking for a job and asks you to come to work for them. It tells you that they really could use your skills and would like for you to join their team. For we geeks, so often the last ones picked for teams, that is huge. The fact that Lori, the brilliant and talented person who recruited me, has known me for many many years and would still want me on her team says even more.
As you may have guessed from other posts on this blog, and from some of the responses to those posts, I am not always the easiest person to deal with. Heck, I rarely am. I can be opinionated, obstinate, emotional and a whole host of other personality traits that I would rather not line out for future prospective employers or therapists. For someone like Lori to know all that about me, have known me and put up with me for years, and still recruit me for her team means a lot. A shot in the ego which I could have used at the best of times – much less when it happened. So not only did she want me, but she was willing to be public with that and vouch for me in an office she holds dear and that values her opinion. Let’s just say, that is very cool.
Another good thing is that this job has allowed me to meet a bunch of cool new folk and make one very good new friend in the person of David Geddings. David is a race running, Disney loving, Krispy Kreme devouring, fireworks exploding piece of work. It is a privilege to call him a friend. He is a serious trip, and the fact that we don’t always see eye-to-eye just makes things even better.
And that picture up there? That is fairly typical of us at lunch. We love our lunches and we love our iPhones. So, for better or worse, you will often find us at lunch time at some great restaurant with our heads bent down texting or posting pictures of the food we are eating.
I am not going to say this past year has been a particularly easy one for me, nor all that good at points, but there have been a few true high spots. Seems funny to me somehow that a friend from so many years ago would create probably the biggest high spot and also introduce me to a great new friend. They good times go ever on.
