3 years ago I had no idea I was standing at a life altering decision. Either I started full-time as a support rep for a very large video game producer based out of Japan (You know the one) or take a part time internship at a “blogging” company.

3 years ago I had just met the previous COO of LexBlog. It was the single greatest interview of my life. We discussed at a high level what the internet has become. We talked about walking into “the room” of the internet, meeting people through a “digital handshake”. We barely talked about what the job was or entails.

I didn’t know what to expect with the job at LexBlog, but I was enticed.

A few days later I was surrounded by images from the Mushroom Kingdom. I took note of the people I would be working with and environment that I would spend my time. Between the gross NDA and meeting the drug-induced team, I decided that I didn’t want the job that badly.

Based on the title of this post, you can guess what happened next. I rolled the dice and took a chance. It was a big deal considering my food budget for a week was around $20-30. I also only had enough money to live for another 2 months before needing to move.

Since starting at LexBlog, I’ve had several titles alongside multiple hats. I’ve worked with some famous attorneys, fantastic firm marketing people, and even greater set of coworkers. I’ve become the person capable of becoming the person I want to be. I know it sounds confusing. It means I have learned how to be a better person that’s capable of more.

As I look back there have been some hard times. I had to learn how to not be “work”-centric. It’s been difficult to learn how to live in accordance with my values, but I’m getting closer to that goal. That’s important because I couldn’t have told you what those values were 3 years ago.

I’ve also learned a great deal about taking care of myself, looking out for others, and being an advocate for positive change. I value growth. That sometimes means I’m the coach. Other times, I’m the cheerleader. Most of the time it means I’m the parent that brings orange slices and waves awkwardly to the kids as the Coach finishes talking to the team.

I’ve learned that the best teams have someone thinking about those orange slices. I hope that I didn’t push the metaphor too far.

As a coworker stated last week, “You’re a real 5th outfielder. You know, someone that can play every position when needed, that isn’t the best at any one single role”. I had to google that. It’s supposed to be “5th infielder” and means something completely different than what they were getting at, but I get what they were saying. I also appreciate it greatly.

It will be interesting to see what this next year looks like. I hope I can grow just as much as I have this last year. If anything, it will be neat to see what happens with LexBlog.

For all my coworkers, know I value all of you. For everyone else, thank you for your continued support. I hope that you found something valuable in this post, something to add to your everyday rhetoric repertoire.

Thank you for reading.