My Best Trip of 2009

As the first installment of the Best of Blog Challenge 2009, the question is: What was your best trip of 2009?

For me, this is kind of a trick question.  On the one hand, I had an awesome trip to California from Tennessee to both connect with friends but more importantly, to meet up with my teenage daughter and then bring her back to Tennessee for her summer “visit”.  On the other hand, I’ve also had an awesome “trip” finally finding a “path” or at least the beginnings of a “path” for my life.  And, at 45, it’s probably high time I found that “path”.

As for the real trip, it was a quick, 3 day trip to Southern California so that I could take care of some pressing personal business with friends in CA while at the same time, semi-surprising my daughter, so that we could fly back to TN instead of her flying alone, which is what she’s done 2-3 times a year for the past few years.  What was awesome about this trip was that all the business I needed to conduct pretty much fell into place.  And, I even had time to spend with my daughter and her first real boyfriend and get to know the young man.  So, all in all, it was a highly successful, if rather mundane trip.

Now, for the more ethereal “trip”, it’s been more a discovery of who I am and where I’m meant to be in spiritual, intellectual, and emotional ways.  You see, I’ve worked for the same company for 17 years.  Technically, it’s two companies, but the first, which I was employed with starting in mid 1993, was bought by the second in 2000 or 2001 and I’ve remained employed with them ever since.  I’ve managed to move around inside the company from a service tech position to a customer support position to a QA position to my current programming/development position. The company is a leader in the revenue cycle management realm of the healthcare industry in the US, thus we are rather safely placed with regard to the current economic climate.

The problem is that we were recently re-capitalized by some large Wall Street investment firms when we were originally capitalized by local TN venture capitalists and thus, the company has gone from being quite like a family to being a Wall Street “corporation”.  And, sadly to my way of thinking, these two types of companies are typically at odds with each other.  Thus, 17 years of rather blissful employment (great folks to work with and for, awesome work environment, etc) has been offset by a change in mindset (we are now in “business units” and each BU has responsibility for it’s profit and loss) thus removing a lot of the “family” feel of the company.  Now, I understand where and even why this is the case.  But, I don’t care for the environment.  I’m much happier knowing that the CEO not only knows my name, but is concerned that I see my daughter often because of the distance between us.  The old CEO was like that.  The new CEO knows my name and I think is aware that my daughter lives in CA, but I don’t have any sense of the same level of concern.

I tell  you all this to lay the groundwork for why my ethereal “trip” has been so amazing.  I decided that enough was enough and started seeking a way out of the cubicle “grind” I’ve been in for so long.  I started reading blogs and following inspirational people on Twitter such as Gwen, our awesome challenger.  And, in so doing, I discovered my one true passion.  Not programming or even “tech” related activities directly.  No, I’ve discovered that my strengths and passions tend towards helping others and inspiring them to follow their dreams.  I believe in the power of following your dream and having the courage to do so and thus finding happiness and success.

And, I can point to a number of people who have found their success by following their passions.  Among these folks I found Leo Babauta of Zen Habits, Gail Lynne Goodwin of Inspire Me Today and Gwen Bell and her awesome blog.  These folks, from their blogs and via Twitter provide daily  inspiration to turn your passion into a livelihood.  They are incredible examples of how to be passionate about what you do for a living.  And, all of this has shown me where my path starts so that I might also become an inspiration for others.  This “trip” will be a long one.  I don’t expect it to be easy or even obvious.  But, I expect it to be an educational and fun “trip”.  And, if you want to see how I’ve started, you can visit the website I created for this endeavor.

Until tomorrow, Peace!

Les