This is the end of the Star of Excellence 2015 trip. A trip that, for me, has been more than a year in the making. And every time I achieve a milestone or accomplish something I try to sit back and take it in. Time to take stock of my life and the twists and turns that brought us to where we currently sit.
2014 was a year that was monumentally important in my life as it meant the building of a career. It is a year that, in future years to come, I will be able to identify as an important building block in my career and my life. After all, it was the year my wife came to work for the same company.
While it is true that I have struggled a lot to get to this point of being in the top 5% of my company for my position, I know that many folks have those struggles and this would end up being more or less a cliche tale that has the protagonist going from nothing to something with nothing more than hard work and perseverance. Except for the fact that in this story, there were contributing factors and I would be remiss to not point those out. But that is a tale for a different time.
If there do happen to be avid readers of the tales that the wife and I make public, you will know that this blog is really an excercise in remembering for when I am old and no doubt senile. To that end, I would like to remember some of the fun that I had and not just tales of how we got there.
Di and I arrived in Washington DC on Sunday, April 5, 2015. We took the Sun Country flight and arrived a day earlier than everyone else that had achieved Star of Excellence status.
While I will get to the whats and the wheres, I need to point out that this was an important trip for the marriage of the Heids. Prior to disembarking for the flight we had been married for over 3 years and still had not gone on vacation together. I suppose you could call the Sacramento Experiment a vacation of sorts but that was all job search and stress.
In terms of marriage advice, while I am no expert, I would advise to not let 3 years go by before going a trip together. Not because there are some allegorical tales about learning about each other via travel or discovering some side of the other person, just because you (and your marriage) deserve a break and while it can be stressful, there is nobody else in the world I would like to have with me while touring the streets of DC.
I will start with this, Di is a trooper. Nearly every day we walked away from the hotel to go and see a whirlwind of destinations. The first day we saw some cool art at the Smithsonian Museum of Art.
The next day we saw the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Monument. I forget which day was which now but we got to see Dorothy's ruby red slippers in the Smithsonian Museum of American History, the Hope Diamond in the Natural History Museum, and the Wright Brothers first plane in the museum of Air and Space. Oooh we also got to see Count von Count from Sesame Street! Two, ah ah ah!
We were trying to win a scavenger hunt which, literally 5 minutes ago I was told we lost the drawing to, so we ran around the final day and shoved in a lot of sights like the WWII memorial, the FDR memorial, the Holocaust memorial, The National Zoo, Ben's Chili Bowl, and the Zero Mile Marker. Breaking out of previous character, I rode the metro subway system with the wife. After a bit we navigated it like pros.
That is all I really want to say for now except that I really enjoyed traveling with my wife. I would not say that she make me braver or anything like that. I would say I want to sort of show off for her. So while if I was by myself I most likely would not gave hit as many sights nor would I have rode the subways but wanting to forever live up to the image of me she has in her mind, I take on new challenges. I push myself further. I am a better person.
Okay, I am sure there will be more soon but that is all I want to say right now. Travel days. They always wear you down.
Cheers!
-Mitch