Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Hell of a month

Growing up, April was always a month that I looked forward to. My birthday falls right in the middle of the month, the weather tends to warm up nicely, nights get shorter, days longer. It was always a time to get outside and have some fun. Then, adulthood gradually began to sink in and the nature of the month started to change bit by bit. First it was in grad school. I remember a guy saying something like, "April sucks. It's always finals and deadlines."  Sure enough, April rolled in and I was up to my eyes with papers and projects. That was kind of a drag but I didn't really want to think of my birthday as a harbinger of crappy times.  What I've settled on is that April is really about change. Of course, I'm projecting backward and cherry picking some important dates but there is a long list of big stuff happening in April.  I was hired for my job at MOTU in April of 2010, in April of 2012 I moved full time to working on bike projects. In 2013 we were finalizing the business plan for bike share, last April we announced our plan to deliver a system to Philadelphia by this spring, and lo and behold, we delivered a few weeks ago.  The following week, my boss, who has been instrumental in most of my successes here at work announced that he was departing the City.  Woof.  

I've gone from fully focused on one project to fully scattered on the little details that surround the operating of a bike share system, and without the guidance that I'd expected.  On the plus side, this is a good chance for me to take some time to think about what I actually want my future to look like.  I'm still thinking.