It's been a little more than three months - one quarter of a fiscal year - since my interview. Since then, I have:
- gotten a new job
- learned to use Ember.js
- ideated and produced three features
- gone on a Royal Caribbean cruise
- swam with stingrays
- jumped off a boat into the Atlantic Ocean
- read a lot about UI/UX
- developed and modified a better morning routine
- ridden a horse
- started to write almost daily
- started weight lifting again and am training for my first 5 K
- seen old friends from college, high school, and even junior high
Leaving a job after a year and a half in pursuit of bigger and better prospects is a monumental decision. I knew it was time to leave when I stopped learning and stagnated for weeks that became months. I left on great terms and have seen some former co-workers in social settings, and have only now started to realize how much I learned in a corporate environment. I am thankful for my experiences at my old job, but every day I am grateful for having ended up somewhere 10x better.
My new job has me focusing more on front-end design and development. I sit in front of a 20-foot whiteboard in a brightly lit room with four other developers and build awesome stuff every day. I am challenged and confident, a critical recipe for success and learning in a new environment. Finding balance is always an interesting goal, and I find that in a daily fitness routine and having a varied social life after 8 pm on weekdays.
My next steps, which have been a long time coming, will be to craft a vision statement for what remains of 2015. I started doing this a long while ago, almost subconsciously, on my Trello boards, but now I've ported it all out to Excel in neat columns with short- and long-term goals for the year and beyond. I plan on creating a poster and hanging it up in my apartment just like some other imagery.