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Senior Member
Grow With Google and Grow With Life
WARNING: EPIC SAGA AHEAD: Sorry for all the sporadic thoughts. Just still trying to process all this. Anyway...
It all started back in 2005. I met a girl and we saw each other a few times and then I disappeared like a chump loser. That same year, I started as the "System Administrator" for a "Startup" company. I worked there for a long time. More on that later...
Then around 2007 my dad had his first heart attack. He would go on to have gradually declining health for the next 10+ years.
In 2011 I met up with that girl again for coffee. But since I'm stupid I only met her the one time and then went on and did other things. She's a pretty amazing person. If you knew her, you'd wonder what the F*** is wrong with me. Meanwhile, I'm still at that company, my dad still has declining health and I'm taking night classes for some reason.
In January of 2015 I realized my life was basically meaningless. I had been spinning my wheels for so long. I didn't know what I wanted and nothing in my life was working. Meanwhile, there was this great girl who (for a reason I can't explain) was into me and I kept letting her pass by. Well, I decided I couldn't let one more day go by. I texted her, told her what a loser I am and if she has any interest left (which I fully expected her not to) then I totally would understand but could we please meet for pizza? She wrote back and soon after we met for pizza. I explained what a douche I was and she agreed but she still decided it would be ok if I stuck around. I was very thankful for that.
During 2015 I was finishing up my classes finally. Only took me 25 years to get my A.S. degree in "Computer Networking Technology" from Mission College in Santa Clara. But that same year Stephanie and I got pregnant and my dad was starting to really go downhill. The pregnancy was going well. She first told me about it on my birthday in October. Meanwhile there were plenty of weekend trips to the Veterans Administration hospital to take care of my dad. He was in and out of there for a long time.
By November we celebrated Thanksgiving. Her entire family was there and I met all of them. At some point during the day her dad reminded me that if I ever left again, he would hunt me down and kill me. I let him know that I wasn't going anywhere.
By December I proposed to Stephanie. I got a ring for her. The proposal wasn't exactly traditional. We went to my company holiday party that night. She had plenty of pregnancy sickness though so we left early. At her apartment, she went into the bathroom to throw-up. Meanwhile, I hid her ring under a pillow on the couch. I guess in my mind, between her dad wanting to kill me and her throwing up, I figured it made sense to do the proposal now (if I could go back and have a do-over, I would but this is how it went.) She came back out and I pulled the ring out and showed her. She was amazed. But I was so stunned I forgot actually ask the question. So she reminded me to ask and then I asked the question. Oops! Anyway, we laugh about that moment to this day. The original plan was for her to NOT be pregnant and I was going to take her to the zoo (like Rocky did with Adrian) and go from there. But this is how the cookie crumbled. Anyway, now we are engaged.
By New Years of 2016, we decided to let people know we were pregnant. It was New Years Day and I created a Facebook post. Of course we told our family well before that but now time to let everyone else know. We even went to the doctor and they did a checkup and everything seemed normal. Everything was fine. I created the Facebook post and now all the world would know. The cat was out of the bag.
Then a week later, life turned upside down. At around 18 weeks, her water broke. We went to the doctor and baby was healthy but essentially no water in the water bag. No water = not much chance for life. So we had an emergency operation. And so ends that chapter. But we move forward...
Well, that dream was crushed but we still had a wedding to plan. And so we did. And we spent the year going through that process. Meanwhile, my dad is getting worse and worse. I fear that his time is drawing near. But we made it to the wedding. It's October, wedding day and everyone was there. With so much bullshit happening, this was truly the happiest day of my life. Surrounded by family and friends and the whole night was amazing. Seriously. I mean, I didn't sleep for 3 nights prior to the wedding, caught the flu day of the wedding and thank goodness for my best man who had the best tequila around on wedding day to keep me going.
Anyway, wedding over now we go to Maui for honeymoon. Awesome! Best week of my life. Although I was miserable with the flu. No sleep, coughing up terrible things and worse. But if you're going to be sick then Maui is the best place to be. We drank plenty of Mai Tai's.
Ok, now we get back from Maui and my manager, the CEO of the company calls me up to tell me that the company is ending. This is in November of 2016. Ok cool. So now my vacation ends to come back to dig myself a grave. Great.
Awesome. Now spent until April of 2017 closing "S3C Inc.". The company I worked for 12 years at. Everything is gone. I got a decent severance package and planned on spending the summer in my home office staring at the wall figuring out what to do next. I had severance package, unemployment money, car was paid off and I was set! But then I decided to answer the phone...
I had Robert Half recruiter call me and I answered and decided to take an interview. Next day I go there to this company, kill the interview and get a job offer. So my summer long retirement vacation is now over. I start back to work tomorrow. WTF have I done???
Ok so I start working there. 3 days later my dad goes back to the hospital. This time for good. A few months he died. Seems like just yesterday I was a kid and we were working on computers in the living room. And now he's gone. I didn't have much time to mourn though because I'm working at my new job.
So I've been working there since April of 2017. Meanwhile, Stephanie and I have been trying to have a second chance but things haven't worked out. She learned that Google has benefits that could help though. So very long story turned into just a few words: She applied to work there and ended up getting a job there. Not only did she get a job there but she is supporting one of the Senior VP's over at Google Cloud Platform. She is freaking awesome. Ok so putting that aside (her awesomeness), now she has the Google benefits she needs to continue the Quest for One. So now we have been working on IVF.
Meanwhile, late last year I stumbled on the Grow With Google program. It's through Udacity. It's pretty great. I got the scholarship and went through Phase 1 for Front-End Web Development. Now I got accepted into Phase 2 which is way more difficult. At the same time, I started working for my company as an independent contractor. I have my own LLC now (TechSnazzy.com) and do IT support for them. It's been a HUGE amount of work but pretty cool.
By the way, I've learned more in one year at my current company than I did in 12 years at my previous company. It's been a long haul and a helluva lot of work and I've basically had ZERO life in recent days but I think this is all going somewhere. At least it feels like it is.
So basically working full-time, creating my own LLC business and taking the GwG classes and trying to make a kid with my wife while remembering my dad and taking care of my mom. Does life ever get any easier?
Last edited by Webhead; 05-12-2018 at 07:35 AM.
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