10 Years
So just a few weeks after my promotion I hit my ten year anniversary at my employer. As is customary, at our all-hands meeting that week our CEO said a few words about me and handed out a nice plaque. I watched the video and transcribed his words, which went like this:
"[He is] always quiet, reserved and to himself individual [crowd laughter], who has been nothing but awesome to have here, a ball of energy and a great developer as well."
I'm not sure what it says about me that the CEO was able to get a reliable laugh line by calling me quiet and reserved, but I suppose he didn't bring up all the times I got written up so I can't complain too much. Plus, tomorrow he's taking me and the other people who hit the 10-year mark in the last two quarters out to lunch.
My take on it is stolen from one of the induction videos at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which is appropriate because nearly every time I've been in there has been paid for by my employer. Anyway, there's an induction video for some old soul or doo-wop band from the 1950s whose name I don't recall. A man is speaking who might have been Solomon Burke; in any event he was a large old black man with a certain gravity and a deep voice. He holds the little trophy they give inductees and says "This has been a long time coming, fifty years coming. And it FEELS like fifty years."
So yeah, it feels like ten years. Which is staggering, because it means I've been working there longer than I've been involved in almost every other important organized activity in my entire life. Boy Scouts, 9 years. Football, 7 years. My longest relationship, 6 years. In fact, the only things I can come up with that I've been doing longer are formal education, 18 years, and WRUW, 14 years.
"[He is] always quiet, reserved and to himself individual [crowd laughter], who has been nothing but awesome to have here, a ball of energy and a great developer as well."
I'm not sure what it says about me that the CEO was able to get a reliable laugh line by calling me quiet and reserved, but I suppose he didn't bring up all the times I got written up so I can't complain too much. Plus, tomorrow he's taking me and the other people who hit the 10-year mark in the last two quarters out to lunch.
My take on it is stolen from one of the induction videos at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which is appropriate because nearly every time I've been in there has been paid for by my employer. Anyway, there's an induction video for some old soul or doo-wop band from the 1950s whose name I don't recall. A man is speaking who might have been Solomon Burke; in any event he was a large old black man with a certain gravity and a deep voice. He holds the little trophy they give inductees and says "This has been a long time coming, fifty years coming. And it FEELS like fifty years."
So yeah, it feels like ten years. Which is staggering, because it means I've been working there longer than I've been involved in almost every other important organized activity in my entire life. Boy Scouts, 9 years. Football, 7 years. My longest relationship, 6 years. In fact, the only things I can come up with that I've been doing longer are formal education, 18 years, and WRUW, 14 years.