Time of my Life

I recently learned that the company who took a chance on a scared little intern right out of school and turned me into the professional that I am is now in trouble because of the tough economic times. New home sales in Denver are down 25% from a year ago and there are something like 400,000 unsold new homes on the market. Without the demand for new homes there won't be any need for the architects who design them.

Around the time I left there were 17 employees on the architecture side, 5 employees on the engineering side and one front desk/office manager person. The engineers had to let one person go just before I left so I hope they didn't have to lay anyone else off but the architecture side is now down to 7 people. I feel for all my friends there who have been laid off and how sad the office must be without them. The company had worked hard to put together a team of really good people who all seemed to get along really well. I loved everyone I worked with so much it was really difficult to leave but I'm glad I did. It would have been terrible to have to see the look on my friend's (and employer's) faces when they had to tell me I could no longer be a part of the company.

Poor, poor friends. I really hurt for all of them.

"Three or four masterpieces more important than fifty, sixty buildings."
I.M. Pei on the tremendous number of his buildings built compared to that of Louis Kahn.

As the holidays approach I'm beginning to be reminded of the place I was in this time last year. I didn't feel like I had a lot to be thankful for because of the things that were going on in my life. This year when I look back on it I realize that the whole thing was a sort of catalyst to get me to change my life. It was time to make things better.

I'm very thankful this year. Thankful for the love of my spouse who has worked through the tough times with me to give us an even better relationship. Thankful for my health because I finally went to the dentist after two years and he told me to go eat some candy so he'd have something to do next time. Thankful for my career because if I had stayed in Denver I'd be unemployed with nowhere to go. Most of all, I'm thankful for finally realizing the bigger picture and letting a little of my life fall into the hands of fate.