Whirlwind

I feel a little bit like my head is spinning. Remember that job I interviewed for that I really wanted? Yeah, well... I got it! 

Which I'm super thrilled about, but it's also a little weird.

For one thing, I'm just finishing up my 3rd year in college. I never really planned to graduate early; it just sort of happened that way. I mean, I am a little obsessive. Which is probably why I found it absolutely necessary to start searching for a job so early. And I was getting pretty sick of school. I mean, ok, I was getting really sick of school... Letting all the boring required classes pile up until right before you graduate makes for some rough semesters towards the end (thankfully, your GPA is a little less important by then).

But this means I'm graduating in June, and walking in August. Kam told me yesterday that he was trying to imagine what it would be like on my graduation day, and I said, "Woah! I didn't even think about walking. Graduation just feels like a whole bunch of technicalities." Which is true. "Graduation" just sounds like a means to an end. But when I think of walking, I always picture this one photograph I saw a lot growing up of my mom in her cap and gown, and how she looked so happy--I think she was laughing. I remember asking her what she was wearing on her head when I was little, and my mom tried to explain it to me, but "That's just what you where when you graduate" didn't seem like a very convincing argument at the time. Looking back on it now, I realize that picture had a large effect on me growing up. I can remember a few instances when I briefly wondered, "What if I didn't go to college?" "What if I don't graduate?" "What's the worst that would happen?" Of course, I can come up with some pretty crazy "worsts that could happen," but somewhere along that train of thought, I've thought of that picture and realized, "Well, then I wouldn't have that." Whether or not to graduate has never been a serious question for me, partially because of my association with that picture.

And now I'm going to have a picture like that. And someday my children are going to see it and ask me what I'm wearing on my head. Talk about a quarter-life crisis. I'm not even old enough to drink, and I'm making life-defining decisions that will affect my entire posterity?! (Not that there should be any correlation between drinking and your ability to make decisions for future generations...)

A couple weeks ago on campus, I heard a couple of old ladies talking to each other. One was bragging to the other about how her grandson was going to Sweden on his mission. I have to admit, every time I hear about someone traveling, I get a little jealous. To myself, I call it George Bailey Syndrome, and it makes me feel a little bit better about myself. But as I heard this old lady talk about her grandson and all the cool places he'd been in Sweden, I thought, "Do old people just live vicariously through their grandchildren?" Because she sounded just as passionate about going to Sweden, but more proud than jealous, even though I was getting the impression she'd never been there. And I realized, "Well, duh!"

That missionary in Sweden was once a bundle of nothing. Not even a glimmer in his parents' eye, because his parents didn't even exist yet! And this old lady, when she was a young lady, decided to raise a family, and a whole lot of dominoes later, she's got like, this tiny army of human beings that look and think and act at least a little bit like her, because she taught them that way. And I thought, "I would have loved to go on a mission, but I know I was supposed to get married when I did." And I wonder if she hears about all of the ladies leaving on missions now and thinks to herself, "I would have done that if it had been that way when I was young, but I know I did the right thing for me in my time," and she can TELL because she has a kid who had a kid who's doing that right now.

Phew! Anyway... That's all kind of cool/crazy stuff to think about. I guess I'm kind of supposed to be talking about this job, huh? You can tell how crazy I feel.

I'll be working as a business analyst for Mindshare Technologies. It's a small to medium sized company in Murray, UT, which is about 40 minutes away from where we live. It's a customer feedback analysis firm, so basically we take all the answer you give us when you take the survey on the back of your receipt, and we analyze them, and we send them to company managers (Only, it's a lot cooler than it sounds). I've met a lot of upper management already, including the CEO. They are all great, friendly people, and the company culture is very much my style (casual dress, playing sports during lunch, hanging posters around the office). The company has been named one of Utah Business Magazine's best companies to work for in 2011 and 2012. I'll be working on the business implications of Mindshare's text analytics software, which I've been told is kind of like working in research and development (you know, where all the genius, creative people work?). I'm going to start part-time this semester and through Spring term, and then graduate and work full-time. If I remember right, I'm the only female member of my team... They told me I could be the queen of the third floor, and I graciously accepted. (... None of that has anything to do with becoming a grandmother though, so I should probably just calm the heck down.)

I've also read that they used to give a pair of red converse to each of their new employees to encourage them to stand out. I'm not sure if they still do this, because I know they just rebranded from red to green. So I was talking to Kam about this today, and I said,

"I wonder if they'll still give me red shoes."

Kam: "If they don't, I will."

So I've got the job, and the shoes!