Friday, March 28, 2008

Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning

Realized that I forgot a few regrets last night. Here they are so Foodie, uh, be careful while reading these.

I wish that I would have done the following once they installed all of the motion sensitive equipment. That morning I wanted to just say “sink activate”, “soap activate”, “towels activate” loudly and clearly every time I used them. I am convinced that within two days I would have had the entire floor thinking that they were voice activated and I would have had untold enjoyment watching people yell at a paper towel dispenser.

I never hurdled the badge reader even though I thought about that every time I went through one. Just see if I could jump over it without setting off the alarm. True, the swarm of segways would be upon me as a result but I’m confident that I could elude them through effective use of staircases.

Despite what some people believe, I never did hack into the underground parking garage. I did figure out how to do it, though. If I didn’t believe that I had to use my power for good and not evil I would have a lot more fun. Plus, evil has much better fashion sense than I do.

Always wanted to introduce myself on a conference call as Optimus Prime. What? It’s a perfectly common name.

Finally, I always wanted to come in late one Sunday night and go from conference room to conference room writing on each consecutive white board the opening chapter of A Tale of Two Cities. Someone has to make Mondays interesting.

(On Sunday I’ll probably write about the moment when I realized that I needed to leave my job. I’d write it tonight but there is a possibility that it would result in my being the first person to be fired on his last day on the job.)

(Time to switch gears here)

I keep in my bedroom something my mom gave me when I left ComEd to go to Notre Dame. It is a picture of one of my favorite places on the planet: the Cliffs of Moher on the coast of Ireland. For those who don’t know about them, this is an area in the southwest of Ireland in which the island simply stops and it is a 700 foot drop to the ocean. I’ve stood there and looked out and it is simply ocean for as far as you can see. It is literally the end of the world. If you went west you wouldn’t hit land until North America. Under this picture is the following saying

“May you seek your dreams and find adventure but always know that you can come home.”

I’ve been thinking about this quote a lot recently. When I went off to Notre Dame it truly was a case of my seeking my dreams. I just went head long into a challenge that I had no idea if I could handle. I was attending business school without having anything but a standard business background. I was a techie who had spent the past five years building mathematical models of the electrical grid of the eastern U.S. I didn’t know anything about marketing or accounting but I pursued a dream and grabbed the brass ring. At least for a moment.

So tomorrow afternoon I will find myself in that same position. All that is in front of me is ocean and sky. Land is out there somewhere, I’m pretty sure of it. I have some people who have agreed to help me in the journey and a few others may join in along the way. Don’t know quite where the journey will take me or if the winds will always be favorable but it is time for me to chart the new course. Off to capture my dreams and live one more adventure. Let’s see what the voyage might bring.

1 comment:

Foodie said...

This was the right amount of laughing. No choking involved. And it made me think of something.

If you only knew all the crazy stuff people have done at Sprint...

I for one haven't done anything crazy there but I know for a fact that others have done much worse things than hurdle the badge reader.

That would be a fun site to read: just people anonymously posting all the crazy stuff they did on campus...