A Date With Destiny

On This Date In History:

I started working full-time twenty-one years ago today. Over that time, though I've worked for five different companies, I've actually only changed employers once. The other three changes were acquisitions or name changes, rather than terminations or resignations. And even with my one real job change, I've never been unemployed, not even for a single day. Or, as I like to say, I've been earning money continually for twenty-one straight years now.

By far the most significant thing about my first job was that it put me in a position to meet Vicki. I was joining a Systems Development team at the bank, almost straight out of university - just a six-week sojourn through Europe separated the two eras - and Vicki was moving from the Product Area to the same Systems team at that same time. As such, we were both rookies on the team in June of 1986, which established an initial bond that probably helped us strike up a friendship. That relationship continued to grow over the next several years, to the point where, when she finally left her unsupportive husband - Tammy's dad - we were already best friends and both just knew we were going to end up together. For all the money I made working over various teams at the bank, and all that I learned over my fourteen and a half years there, nothing comes close in terms of value to that fateful introduction to my future-wife.

Twenty-one years down... one or two more to go?