Rae La Soul

Things are moving pretty fast over here on my end, but in a really good way. I’m a bit pressed for time with little league baseball games, volunteering with the Boys & Girls Club my daughter attends, school, teaching, research, etc. but I want to let you all know what’s been going on.

This week is the last week for me as a Robotics Instructor for ESI and it’s a little bittersweet. While every day hasn’t been easy and the fact that our robots didn’t arrive until a few days before the program will end, it has been a wonderful experience nevertheless. I’m sure the kids learned a lot from the project and the programming lessons, but I’d like to think that I may have benefited from the experience more than them. And I say that for an amazing reason.

That amazing reason is that I’ve found employment. Or, more employment as I should say. No wait, maybe I should say that I will be starting my career in about three weeks. In a sense, I started my career earlier this year with a smaller company, but that ended horribly simply because my boss had major issues when it came to providing me with a paycheck for all the work that I had done. But this time, I know it’ll be different because it’s with a larger, grander, structured company.

The entire process to start my career and enter the corporate world has been a long one. From a 30 minute behavioral and a 30 minute technical interview to a very hard apptitude test that left me with much doubt, every thing worked out. The most ironic thing about all of this was that I did this twice, once for an entry level position and then again for a mid-level position. I was even interviewed by one of our local news stations when this company visited my university. I have YET to receive a decision in regards to my interview for entry-level, but it’s the least of my concerns. Why? Well, because I’ve accepted a wonderful offer as Mid-level Application Development Specialist for IBM aka “Big Blue.”

Pivotal things are occurring this year and I love it! But with these pivotal things comes changes–changes that I want to make and those that need to be made. For the most part, these changes are mutual as in I need to make them but I also want to make them as well. I think the most important changes would be putting an end to procrastination, staying organized, and sticking to a budget. But I do plan to document the journey through a “Corporate Life” series to provide insight and to help me as well.

I have been emotional ever since I received the news on Wednesday because in that instant, I vividly recalled how lost and how unsure I was of myself a few years ago. Bad spending habits. Poor judgement. Lack of motivation. I was a mess. And one morning I woke up disgusted with the way my life had gone and decided to change all of that. It took a lot of hard work to get to that point and that’s why it’s so amazing to me to be able to see all of the hard work that I’ve put in over the years result in the start of my career. Here I am–25 years old with a career that provides me with an amazing salary, awesome benefits, and not to mention, I received a hefty sign on bonus. I. Am. Blessed.

I am blessed. I am living proof that God is an amazing God and a forgiving God. I am a piece of that concrete evidence that you need to believe that God is real. I am confirmation that when you believe wholeheartedly in God, you’ll receive all of those great things that He has for you.

“Commit to the Lord, whatever you do, and He will establish your plans!”