Even after 4 months, that thought goes through my mind a dozen times every day. I followed my instincts and I don't regret that (much to Landon's disbelief), but it's still so crazy to me that I actually quit GoEngineer.
My best friends work there, the company is interesting, fast-paced, and cultivates a culture that is employee focused. And it's FUN. I would come home every single day with an hour's worth of stories for Landon about things that had made me laugh throughout the day.
It's rare for me to have even one these days.
The bank is great in it's own way though. It's half the drive, it's almost 100% less stress, more flexibility, more PTO, and more money. But it's quiet, and professional, and the people that I fell in love with aren't around the corner from me anymore.
This wasn't what I intended to write about in this post though, so let's redirect this stream of thought. I wanted to tell you about the one day I got to spend at GoUniversity this year. I should probably elaborate on what GoU is- it's the company retreat GoEngineer takes it's employees on every summer up in Park City. They rent out a ton of rooms at the Westgate right on the mountain and bring the entire company out for it. They have breakout sessions, a whole day devoted to an awesome outdoor activity, and every night is a party. I wish I would have written about it last year, but it was during the same time in my life that everything outside of work was giving me an ulcer, RE: selling our house and buying a new one.
I didn't go this year though, because duh, I don't work there anymore. But my people there are still trying to win me back so they still let me join them for a night. (They also let me come to the Ragnar again, but that's another post.) Before I quit, I helped them book my dad as the keynote speaker for this year so of course I was going to be there for that and my old boss had to leave a night early so they let me have his room. And even though it wasn't even 24 hours, I had more fun that night than I have had in a long time.
I showed up around 2:00 because my best friends Cassidy and Andrew were giving their own presentations to the sales team and I wanted to be there for that. They both knocked it out of the park, Cass spoke about the ISR/TSR relationship and spit out some hard truths, but she's the most genuine person on the planet and it was incredibly well received. Andrew spoke about his time as a bull semen salesman which was hilarious and inspiring as well. I was so proud of both of them. I had worked for Go longer than both of them put together and I would have had a panic attack if they asked me to give a sales presentation to the whole department.
At 4:00 it was my dad's turn to speak. My old boss and one of my best friends, Bryan, was introducing him and I don't want to forget how after he had told who he was and where he came from he said to everyone, "He has also generated some incredible offspring." as he looked at me. It was a hilarious and wonderful compliment, and such a Bryan thing to say. My dad took the floor, the room was filled with almost 300 people and it was one of my favorite moments when he began and he asked the room if they were ready to learn something significant that they could take home to say "You bet!" and the thunderous "YOU BET!!" that followed shook the room and you could see the surprised on my dad's face from the energy that responded. His eyes LIT up and he laughed saying, "Oh we are about to have a GOOD time."
He BLEW them away with his message and his magic tricks. Cassidy's face when he ripped a newspaper up and restored it with the flip of his wrists was hilarious. We were all so hyped up and the room was literally buzzing with energy. His last magic trick he turned a thin piece of paper into a $100 bill and I was sitting on the second row and I started to reach for it, and my dad was like, "oh yeah we'll give it to you." But my friend Matt who was sitting in front of me thought it was going to him and while I didn't see his face, I heard it was the ultimate disappointment when my hand came over his shoulder and snatched it away right before he could grab it. And for the record, I tried to give it back after his talk, but in a true great dad fashion he wouldn't accept it.
He spent a few minutes towards the end of his speech to address the incredible people in the room who used to be his students and talk about how they have gone above and beyond the average. After talking to the 6 or 7 of them he said, "Now where is my favorite student?" and I waived the $100 bill in the air. And he took a few seconds to tell the entire room about how I inspired him He was on the verge of getting choked up and had to move on, but I had multiple people come up to me after and say they started tearing up when he was talking about me. And really how the entire hour just blew their expectations out of the water.
I am so proud of him. And I'm so proud of everyone at Go for giving him such an incredible reaction and all of their attention. He even said that it's incredibly rare to have that type of energy at a corporate event. It's been a week and my heart is still just so full and so proud. I had told my dad for a year and a half how cool Go is, but I think being there and feeling it was when he finally realized what I had been trying to describe.
After that we went up the road for a delicious dinner. It was buffet style, so while we waited for the line to die down we were able to tear up the roundabout outside the restaurant on One Wheels and big wheels. I took a tumble off the one wheel and have an impressive bruise on my knee as evidence.
I got a solid 3 1/2 hours of sleep before we had to get up and hit breakfast. I was able to make it to the first hour of break out sessions and get inspired before I had to leave for my actual job. Every time I walk away from that group of people, my heart just aaaaches. And they don't make it any easier because they really want me to come back. They've been pulling out all the stops to make it happen, but I'm still just really trying to listen to my instincts. My heart says to go back, but my gut is telling me to stay put and it's an extremely painful internal battle, but I'm following the same intuition that brought me to Go, so I am trusting that it will continue to take me places where I need to be.
Anyway. This was an emotional roller coaster of a post. Very bittersweet. But if I leave you with nothing else from this post it's that the best people on this planet all work down in Cottonwood Heights in a red brick building selling engineering software and I miss them with every atom of me.
Stay tuned for the Ragnar post. You thought this one was long.....
