As I sit here now in my new house in San Francisco, looking out of the huge windows over the southern San Fran landscape, it all just feels surreal. To think that a week ago I was in Lincoln, Nebraska in the snow and cold. I just can't believe all the turns that life throws at us daily. From meeting new people, to new environments. It has caused me to reinvent and refine myself.
2000 miles and three days later, I moved all my worldly possessions which consists of everything I need daily (which fits in a Subaru) and all my hobbies and toys (surfboards, snowboards, mtn bike, motorcycle, golf clubs, shotguns, rock climbing gear, camping equipment) to which I am always adding that I put in a Uhaul truck. I stopped overnight in Salt Lake City, to visit with an old friend Brandon Oquendo, who I hadn't seen since high school. He owns a painting franchise and is also doing real estate investing management as well. A very motivated guy and I see big things in his future. It was great to sit down over a couple beers and talk strategies and entaprenual approaches to ideas.
I came up with no job, and a couple leads... with the goal of living with two of my best friends for the "golden years" of our young lives. 12 hours after being here I got a job offer to work as an engineer doing materials inspection and construction inspection. I still need a bed, the air mattress isn't the greatest, nor is the couch.
I have a couple more interviews lined up....I think this will be a fun, challenging, and memorable year...I can't wait!
Showing posts with label reflections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reflections. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
It's about time
I finally have a blog. A place to put down my thoughts, my goals and my daily mishaps. A year has passed since I moved to Nebraska and started a new direction in my life. I regret not having a blog then, because with every big choice we make in life we are changed and I want to have an account of those changes. However I have noticed a few:
I have noticeably changed in many ways I never expected. I learned about myself being alone...really alone and that I can get motivated to work even when it's for myself. I realized I wasn't as outgoing as I once thought, when put in a place I'm not accustomed to and when I don't know anyone else around within a couple thousand miles, I actually had trouble branching out.
I hope to move every couple years, not because moving itself is great...it's hard to pick up go somewhere new, but because of the ways I am able to reinvent myself and gain new prospectives about life and people. People in Nebraska are different, well different from where I grew up, but in great ways. There is a real feeling of family and a "good neighbor" quality that I wish would rub off on other parts of the country. Life seems to move a little slower, at a pace where it can be enjoyed.
To give an example of the kind of people I have met in the last year and the friends I have made I can recall the time I got stuck in the mud on the side of the road. It was a rainy day, and I had tried to haul some rocks behind a trailer over to my project site. I didn't get very far onto the property before spinning and sinking down in the grease-like mud that is native here. Within 20 minutes, literally every truck that came by asked if I needed help and was will to get out in the rain and mud on a Friday evening to help a stranger out of the mud. Kindness spreads, and you can imagine my anticipation for the opportunity to be able to help someone else when the time comes.
A second example is that when ever it came around a holiday, whether it was Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, I would always get invited to dinner by at least three or four families. They of course knew that I didn't really know too many people, but these were people I didn't know all that well and they still were kind enough to invite me over. I challenge myself this year to find an opportunity to do the same. I can't think how many times I must have missed out on the opportunity to make someone's day by inviting them over when they have nowhere to go, when I was so caught up in my own family dinners. I know what it's like now and I know how good it fealt to have somewhere to go.
This was a long one. I hope the next ones will be shorter and more to a point, but I am an engineer and get very few chances to write....so look out!
I have noticeably changed in many ways I never expected. I learned about myself being alone...really alone and that I can get motivated to work even when it's for myself. I realized I wasn't as outgoing as I once thought, when put in a place I'm not accustomed to and when I don't know anyone else around within a couple thousand miles, I actually had trouble branching out.
I hope to move every couple years, not because moving itself is great...it's hard to pick up go somewhere new, but because of the ways I am able to reinvent myself and gain new prospectives about life and people. People in Nebraska are different, well different from where I grew up, but in great ways. There is a real feeling of family and a "good neighbor" quality that I wish would rub off on other parts of the country. Life seems to move a little slower, at a pace where it can be enjoyed.
To give an example of the kind of people I have met in the last year and the friends I have made I can recall the time I got stuck in the mud on the side of the road. It was a rainy day, and I had tried to haul some rocks behind a trailer over to my project site. I didn't get very far onto the property before spinning and sinking down in the grease-like mud that is native here. Within 20 minutes, literally every truck that came by asked if I needed help and was will to get out in the rain and mud on a Friday evening to help a stranger out of the mud. Kindness spreads, and you can imagine my anticipation for the opportunity to be able to help someone else when the time comes.
A second example is that when ever it came around a holiday, whether it was Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, I would always get invited to dinner by at least three or four families. They of course knew that I didn't really know too many people, but these were people I didn't know all that well and they still were kind enough to invite me over. I challenge myself this year to find an opportunity to do the same. I can't think how many times I must have missed out on the opportunity to make someone's day by inviting them over when they have nowhere to go, when I was so caught up in my own family dinners. I know what it's like now and I know how good it fealt to have somewhere to go.
This was a long one. I hope the next ones will be shorter and more to a point, but I am an engineer and get very few chances to write....so look out!
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