Time Machine

Last night I woke up from a bad dream, and disoriented, I thought I
was in my room in my childhood home. For a moment I was eight again,
my parents were in the next room, and i was comforted by the fact that
everything was right with the world. As I slowly woke up, this
illusion started to fade, though I tried to hang on to it. The bad
feelings from my dream came back, except this time I was awake. I
realize now that age is bought with innocence, and what a high price
it is we pay.

Paintings

I stood in the living room of my childhood home, camera in hand, documenting my family's last day in the home and my parents' move to a new house. The room looked so much smaller with all of the furniture gone. I moved slowly from room to room, trying to remember what they looked like furnished. I was surprised how quickly I forgot.



My parents were scrambling to get the last of their stuff packed away in the car, so unlike me, distracted from melancholy. I walked down the hallway, stopping at every doorway to snap a photo. I later looked through them to see the same emptiness in each.



I stopped in my old room and found a pile of my stuff, useless things that didn't make it into the truck when I moved out. I found some sentimental things when I sifted through them, but practicality made me put them back in the pile.



I took one last look around the room, preparing myself to leave two decades behind. My eyes paused on the only two things hanging on the wall, gifts from Brandi. They were all I took with me when I left.

My Last Day on Earth

I was watching a video about a month ago of Steve Jobs' 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford University. One of his most notable points, in my opinion, really struck a chord with me. He said something along the lines of:

"Ask yourself everyday, 'if today was my last day on Earth, would I be happy with what I'm doing?' If the answer is 'no' too many days in a row, maybe you should do something different."

Deloitte has been absolutely great to me these past three and a half years, and has really given me a good start on my career. However, lately, I've been itching for change and eager to be challenged with more responsibility and a wider roles. For the next stage of my career, I've decided to move to Slalom Consulting to help them build up their security group here in San Francisco. I can't wait to get started!

Real-life Costanza Wallet

Have you ever seen the episode of Seinfeld about George Costanza's huge wallet? Here's a synopsis from Urban Dictionary:

"Referring to the Seinfeld episode where George's wallet was so overstuffed with junk that it made him sit at a tilt with it in his back pocket; forcing him to even it out by stuffing his other back pocket with napkins. Eventually, the wallet exceeds maximum density and explodes on the street in a shower of cash and receipts."

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=george+costanza's+wallet

My cousin Chris' friend Rahim has a real-life Costanza wallet, only it's even bigger. And like George's wallet, it even exploded while he was checking out at Safeway, as he was struggling to pull it out of the front pocket of his jeans. Rather than get mad at him for holding up the line, the cashier and other customers laughed at the absurdity of it.

I laughed just looking at it, and had to take a picture as proof:

Taking ownership

In my company's performance reviews, we often talk about "taking ownership" of your work. Like all consulting terms, the definition of this term is vague, but I always took a technical view of what it meant: to determine what your work products look like, to be responsible for its on-time delivery, etc. While this isn't necessarily wrong, it's also a very narrow view, and today I began to realize how much more it should mean.

I visited our Foster City office today to pick up a few items. It's a small office, only half a floor, but a very nice one. There's one admin at the front-desk who's in charge of hoteling and facilities. She greeted me warmly and I told her what office I was from and why I was there. She immediately made me feel welcome, saying things like,

"Let me show you where I keep those."

and

"While you're here, why don't you grab something to drink from the kitchen? I keep the fridge stocked with sodas and iced tea. I just brewed some Peet's coffee, too."

and

"If you'll be working in the area for a while, why don't I get you a badge for this office? Do you have a minute for me to take your picture?"

I've never seen a better attitude from any front-desk person at any other company or office in my life. I thought about it afterwards and wondered what it was that set her apart. I think it's the ownership she took of the office. Technically speaking, she no more owned that office than I did. But she gave the hospitality you would offer a guest at your own home. "Let me show you where I keep those ... I keep the fridge stocked ... I just brewed some Peet's coffee." Now that is real ownership.

I hope to have the same attitude about the work I do.