Poke him with a stick. Yeah, he's still alive

Oh goodness, it has been a while.

A recent e-mail reminded me that I had a blog, and a quick read over the last post kind of scared me because it seemed a bit depressing.

Things have been changing for me here in Seattle!

For starters, I no longer work at Microsoft. So that's really big news. I think I've already talked to the people close to me about it, so I suppose it's fair to write now.

I want to be really careful and tactful here as I write this, because I can see how this kind of thing could be a sensitive situation. So first and foremost, I think I learned a lot about the time I spent there and I am pretty excited I even had a shot.

So the long and short of it is that things weren't really working out in my team. I will refrain from going into the "why" and so on on a public blog like this. But it does make me realize the importance on working on something that elicits passion for the work. In the position I was in, I didn't feel like I was working on problems I was prepared for in college, nor was I able to get myself excited for what we were doing. Moreover, I didn't feel like I was often able to get traction in the environment I was in. So maybe it just wasn't the place I was meant to be.

In the short time since then, I have been feeling my life flowing back into me. I look around at Seattle and the relationships I've had and I realize I haven't taken much time to enjoy either. I live in a beautiful city, and I really want to stay here and pursue it more.

So where am I going now? Well, the first few days, I spent some time thinking about what I actually like to do. In college, it was easy enough to pick something up and just be good at it. I think there were a lot of things I was good at, but few things I actually took the time to enjoy. I guess in college, I didn't really need to enjoy the work. I just needed to 'dominate'.

So here are the things I have figured out:

• I like working with and helping people


• I like working on things that help people


• I like helping people solve their problems


• I like using communication and project management to walk through a solution
  
  aka I actually enjoy meetings, which is kind of weird


• I like small teams where there is a lot of collaboration


• I still like writing software

So I'm still kind of figuring out what I would 'love' to be doing for work for some time. I still love doing things with music and serving others, but I suppose roles in software engineering are the only things that make sense to me professionally.

For now, I'll focus on getting back on my feet and finding a job that keeps me going here in Seattle.

If anything, this has been more of an exciting time than a depressing time. I am stoked for what the next few months hold.

I'll come up with other things to write sometime soon. It has been an awakening of a realization I have always known, but work is not the only thing that identifies me or that defines my life. I have also gotten to do some cool things with music and other stuff in Seattle in the last few months. I'll write about that soon.