It Wasn't A Well Thought-Out Plan

It started with a posting on my company's staff website. Amid advertisements for an IT technician in Melbourne, and a Lead Teacher in Florida, was a very subtle "NY Student Services". And me thinking: "maybe someday" and continued with my work.

The New York Center Director, whom I worked with a brief one-week stint, said he wanted to talk to me about this opportunity. My boss, who is based in New York City but happened to be in San Diego that week, was in the office when I heard this. I approached him just as he had sat down with his lunch, I remember distinctly asking his opinion on this, his face down as he lathered sriracha sauce over his noodles and listened to me. "There's no harm in expressing interest and asking about salary and starting date" was his advice. I think it was all a game with myself, seeing how far I could go before I backed out, and get a little rush on this experience. I expected that that would be the last step, that he would talk me out of it, and I would stop there. But I took it one step further.

I had a teleconference with the New York center director Greg, and I had carefully chosen words to express that while I was interested in the opportunity, right now was not feasible, and that I would appreciate him contacting me if something else came up. As I started to deliver my speech, which instead came out grossly disjointed and started with something like "It's just so soon", Greg calmly agreed with me "I know, that's the way it always happens," and I think it was that exact sentence that turned me around. Great opportunities are never drawn out plans that are executed on our schedules. Whether it's now or later, it will always raise some sort of inconveniences. I was reminded of the words of my friend Daniel Stone who once told me "You have to go with the opportunity you have now, not the one that you think will come". Who's to say if another one would come, and really, what IS stopping me?

After loads of talking with everyone around me, after a visit to the New York Center, after signing some paperwork, after training someone new, it has officially become the new road of my life, that I would be moving to New York to work for the New York Center, beginning May 17.

This is my story. (Thank you for asking for it, Aunt Frances).