Redefining Oneself
January 19th, 2007
I am assuming that everyone goes through phases in their life where they redefine who they are, or who they would like to be. I have slowly been doing that over the past couple of months, starting with me leaving Xerox.
One of the reasons that I chose to go the contract route instead of full time employment was because I thought it would be interesting to be able to work at different companies and on different projects. After being at Xerox for four years I was tired of the same thing day after day with no room for advancing my technical skills. That hasn’t exactly happened yet. I am still out at Nike, but I am working with some talented individuals and I am advancing my skills. I am pretty content. Its not exactly my dream job but it is not frustrating, or annoying, and it pays the bills.
Contract work has had a side effect that I didn’t plan on. For the longest time I have dreamt about traveling for a whole year. One of the main reasons that I have not yet done it, is because I am a terrible planner. I usually fly by the seat of my pants. Another reason is I haven’t changed my lifestyle, I like spending my money.
Over the past year I have done more traveling than usual. In March I was in Austin, TX for 5 days at SXSW. In April my grandmother passed away, so I was in New York for a week in a half. In August I was in Black Rock City, NV for little over a week. In November I was in Buenos Aires for a week, and back in New York for another week over the holidays in December. Thats almost six weeks. If I was a full time employee I would not be able to take that much time off, but as a contractor I can.
Upon my return from Buenos Aires, I realized that one of things that makes me happy is traveling. I love not being home and seeing new things. Don’t get me wrong I love Portland, but there is so much to see and do. Thats when I realized that since I was a contractor I could plan trips around jobs. I could work for a while and then take off for 1, 2, or 3 months or more. That made me so happy and realized it is more doable than planning a year long trip. So that is what I am doing.
I am planning a 2 to 3 month trip to South America for next year. I don’t have all the details or the exact route yet. I am hoping that the route will just materialize itself in front of me. The rough plan is to go down one side of the continent and back up the other. It will all depend what I want do and when things take place. I’ll write more about this trip later.
For as long as I can remember I have always defined myself as a software developer. I am now redefining my way of thinking. I am now defining myself as a traveler who does software development and uses that for funding trips. Just because I am defining myself as a traveler doesn’t mean that I am going to abandon software development and technology. I still love it and plan to continue growing and learning, its just not entirely who I am anymore.
Another part of me that I am redefining is the artistic, creative side. I have always thought that I was pretty creative but have not really done much about it. I always have ideas running through my head. I think to myself, “wouldn’t it be cool if…”, and then I don’t do much about it.
I have always liked photography and thought it would be fun to try being an amateur photographer. So I have recently purchased a Nikon D80 and I am signed up for a class starting in February. I am really excited and can’t wait. I am currently working on a photography project that I think is going to turn out pretty cool. I’ll post about it shortly.
So in just a few months I have gone from defining myself as just a software developer, to a traveler and amateur photographer, who does software development has a job and for fun as well, I am still a geek at heart after all.
