I just spent the last hour writing and rewriting my about me page hoping to give some insight in to who I am as a person. I wrote pages about TV shows I like, attempted to define geek and rambled on a bit about not wanting the “picket fence” life.
Ultimately I arrived at a simple one line statement.
I live for change
What does this mean? How does that tell you anything about me? In my opinion, it tells you everything. I absolutely live for change. Every decision I make in life is so that I can be setup for another adventure. I’m not a man of great means, so I have to pick and choose my experiences. Having constant change, and it’s by-product, challenge, keeps life an adventure.
Do I do this with my job? Hell yes! I don’t have or want a “typical” work day. I love coming in to new and interesting problems every day. I love talking to new people every day. The moment my job becomes a slog of the same work every single day where it’s “time to make the donuts”, I’m out. Honestly, I’m in I.T., if there is EVER a time where I have to do the same task every day on the computer, I’m doing it wrong. This is why we have computers, so that we can automate the mundane and concentrate on the real work of solving problems. Right?*
Do I do this with my personal life? Absolutely! I put my fridge in my living room once. I had a tiny kitchen in a giant apartment. I built a shelf in place of the fridge and my kitchen instantly had more counter space. The microwave no longer took up the only 2 feet of couter. I could actually chop vegetables in the kitchen instead of on the dining room table. To my roommates it seemed so arbitrary when I was putting it out, then they realized how much space we now ha in the kitchen. Sometimes you learn from change, even when it is arbitrary.
Change. It is what powers the Marcus.
*A special note to my current, past and future employers – I mean it. 🙂 I don’t consider any of you to be like that. Honestly, the only kind of job I could even think would be a real boring daily drag would be factory/warehouse work. Even custodians see something new every day.