Life, new and improved

Ten years ago I got on a plane in rural Idaho and made my way towards Ploiesti, Romania for service in the United States Peace Corps.  Not only was that a big step but many before it and after have led me down such an amazing road in life.  Looking back at such a monumental anniversary it's nice to remind myself there are no regrets! Leading up to this I had a shift in my thinking.  "I have the rest of my life to work this office job, do the things 'expected' of me by society" and live up to whatever expectations I had built in my head of what life would be.  Here I was living and working as a professional in the career I had set out to start since day one of college 7 years before, but what was missing.  I had been working professionally for a few years and found my work exciting.  I was a coming of age gay man in the early 2000's Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle.  A very exciting time to be there with protests, a budding design communi...

There was never any question in my mind when I started on this coding journey why I was getting into this industry.  I had seen models of great company culture, life/work balance, enthusiastic teams and engaging ever evolving work through so many friends' companies as well as job postings I knew where I belonged.   I have worked on and off for years in both great and terrible work environments.  In the end I've learned that the people are the single biggest factor in what makes a job worth giving up so much of your personal time.  Money sure, that's great, but in the end at a certain career level you have enough money to be fine, beyond that it's all just frosting.  When the money is no longer such a big reason as to why you go to work every day what is left?  The team you work with, the folks you connect with in other departments, the relationships you forge in those journeys with folks who quite frankly you spend more waking hours with than most...