The last 9 years...

TL;DR - I am blessed to be where I am here in Minnesota. I love my church, job, and friends.

As I am sitting here in my apartment listening to the thunderstorm outside, contending with spotty internet, and winding down from the day, I am reminded of how blessed I am to be where I am right now. Let me explain:

For those of you who don’t know, I was born and raised in California. I was always within five to six hours from my parents, even when I was living in LA for school and after I left school. When I was fired from my job at Hazel Hawkins IT Department (long story), I didn’t have an immediate new job. This was back in 2012 when the economy wasn’t the best and the job market wasn’t the best for someone with no 4-year degree and only retail and limited IT experience. I was basically treading water for a year and a half, and leeching off of my parents...for which I am both eternally grateful, and eternally remorseful about. It had gotten to the point where I became desperate and in July 2013, I took a waiter job at Jerry’s of Hollister (it’s kinda like Denny’s).

To be honest, that job saved my life. Literally. I had been looking for IT related jobs in Silicon Valley. Had even gotten to a couple of final interviews where it was just me and one other person. Each time, they went with the other guy. It was disheartening. I felt like I was not hirable. Like I had this sign on my back that said: “Don’t hire this guy...he is a slacker and a loser”. It was depressing. I had gotten so deep into depression and was so angry at myself for the situation I had put myself in, that I had started to contemplate suicide. Wow, I actually wrote that down. I haven’t said or written those words down before but had thought about them...a lot. Just when I was at my breaking point and called out to God to save me, he did...through Jerry’s. It makes me laugh looking back on it now. Who would have thought that a waiter job could save someone’s life? Well, it did for me! That job turned things around, made me feel like someone wanted to hire me, wanted me in general. It made me stop giving up on finding a career, on finding something that I would love to do for the long-term. It was a great 4 months working at Jerry’s.

While I was working for Jerry’s, I started looking again for jobs. This time, branching out of California and the Silicon Valley and looking in states where I had family or friends. The sites I was looking at like Monster.com, Indeed.com, and even Craigslist.com had several emails of jobs being sent to me daily. I was checking craigslist for Minnesota because I had some friends from my online gaming days that lived there. As I was perusing the jobs board there, I came across an entry level help desk job at a company called 7 Medical Systems. I sent my resume and cover letter to them, and they actually called me back! I had a phone interview, and they told me they would let me know the next steps. A couple of days later, I got an email asking if I would be willing to do a Skype interview (since they were in Minnesota and I was in California). I agreed and we had the interview. It was great and I had a really good feeling about the possibility. A couple days later (over the weekend), I got a call informing me that I had been passed over (yet again) for the other guy. To say that I was heartbroken would be an understatement. Thankfully, that feeling did not last for more than two days...they called me back! They had another position that had just opened up and they wanted me for the job! The only catch was...I needed to be in Minneapolis to start my job on the 29th of October, and it was the 14th of October. Two weeks! Ahhhhh!

Thankfully, I have the best family in the world. My parents helped me to pack my belongings into my car, and with my dad riding shotgun, I drove from Hollister, CA to Minneapolis, MN in 3 days. I had nowhere to call my own and only what I could fit in my car. Thankfully, I had some pretty great, and awfully trusting friends that I had met online through online gaming. They found out that I was moving to Minnesota and they opened their home to me, a practical stranger who they had only spent time online with. Alex and Becky Hunt allowed me to invade their home, and live in their basement for a couple of weeks while I looked for a place of my own. I had some other friends through online gaming that I finally met in person and even a friend from college that happened to live in the area as well! They even introduced me to the place I call my church now, Eagle Brook Church.

I worked for 7 Medical Systems from October 2013 to April 2016 during which time I had started volunteering at church in the production department. This church is by far the largest church I have attended. At the time, it was 6 campuses with 20,000 in attendance each weekend. Live cameras for worship and the message was broadcast from the central campus in Lino Lakes to the other 5 campuses. I continued to grow in my production knowledge, and was even trained to be a fill-in Producer, which became a contract role meaning I got paid to do it! I continued to do this until I was encouraged to apply to the Video Director position at a campus, which I got! I left 7 Medical Systems to become a Video Director on Thanksgiving Weekend of 2015. Yes, I worked both jobs for almost 6 months.

In January 2016, I broke my back. We were on a staff outing to play broomball, and I slipped and fell on the ice. Because it was a staff outing, it was covered by Worker’s Compensation, but also because of me (and another co-worker injury unrelated, but still work related), there are some pretty strict rules on what kinds of activities can be done while at work without any kind of liability release. Needless to say, this has changed my life, but I am thankful that I did not need surgery, nor did I lose the ability to walk. I have some limitation in my mobility, but that is about it.

Towards the end of 2017, my job at Eagle Brook Church was coming to an end. I met with my old boss at 7 Medical and as it turns out (because God works this way) they had a position that they thought would be perfect for me. I accepted and started back with 7 Medical Systems on January 4, 2018. So here I am, almost 6 years in Minnesota. 2 job changes, 4 apartments in 3 cities later, and I couldn’t be happier. Yes, my life isn’t perfect, and a lot of that is self-inflicted, but I am happy. I have amazing friends, I love my company, I really love my church and have started to volunteer again this year after taking a year off from it to just attend church.

Through it all, God has been with me. And of course, my family has been with me, even though I might make them want to pull their hair out for making the same mistakes over and over again, they still love me.

Restarting this blog will be good for me I think. And I resolve to actually stick with it this time… hehe.

9 Years Later....

Well, it's been 9 years, 1 month, and 23 days since my last post. So much has changed since then. I have had 3 other jobs and been unemployed, but the biggest change in my life has been my move to Minnesota. I am at work right now, so I should be focusing on that, but I will post about my life over the past 9 years tonight. It's good to be back, and thanks to Alex Hunt for inspiring me to take up my blog again.