Over the two-hour ski on the trails, Tim shared more about this position and, by the time I arrived home, I was vigorously dusting off my résumé for the first time in a decade during that 2019 Super Bowl. Luckily, it was one of the most boring Super Bowls ever. (Patriots 13, Rams 3 — and the Patriots are my least favorite team) Suddenly, I was at a fork in my career.
Fast forward just two months later. My last day of work as an engineer was April Fool’s Day. I couldn’t help but wonder if the joke was on me, walking away from such a lucrative career and throwing away my engineering degree, to instead work for a start-up nonprofit. I had never organized an event before, had no idea how to run a business, much less a volunteer-driven organization, and wasn’t sure if I was cut out for the service business. Turns out the approach and timeline to organize, communicate, and manage events mirrors my former life, and I’ve gotten much mileage out of my engineering degree. There was a reason why no one was already organizing these complex events.
As in any job in life, it’s not always glamourous. Sorting garbage, setting up courses in raw temperatures and rain, not being able to sleep for two weeks prior to an event because I’m wondering what we forgot to do, struggling for sponsorships to make events self-sustainable, running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to fill in for all the volunteers that we didn’t get, didn’t show, or didn’t think of, and being the first to show up and last to leave events.
