2016 - The year of suck?

I've decided that I am going to start a new blog.  My old blog, Andy's House O' Blog, has served me well over the years and chronicles my life as a Domino Administrator.  But when those days ended earlier this year and my career path had taken a different turn, I decided that it was time to put that blog to bed and start something new.  More a blog about what's on my mind rather than a blog that was dedicated solely, for the most part, to my life in the IBM product stack.  It's not something that I plan on updating regularly, but just a sounding board.  Somewhere new to represent my new start in life. 

Yes, my life has changed.  I finally landed a job and started Monday of Thanksgiving week.  Not an opportune time to start a job really, but I was chomping at the bit to get started.  It's the first time in almost 2 decades that I walked into a new company with no idea how I was going to fit in.  At 47, it's a scary thing.  But as I got more into the swing of things at work, I started to realize more and more that I was ready for this.  The things I was doing, the conversations I was having with people, the interactions with them on a technology and business standpoint proved to myself that yes, all is well.  Then I started to think more about it.  Having an hour commute on the highway each way to and from the office offers the mind lots of time for reflection.  But what I've noticed is, I'm not the "low man on the totem pole" anymore in my role.  I am the totem pole.  For all things IT in the plant on the business side, it all passes through me.  Yes, I have to answer to plant leadership and my manager on the east coast, but the things I do and say have a lot more weight and relevance than they had to what I was doing prior.  I was in a position, a comfortable one at that, where I was "the guy" for messaging.  Yes, I knew that the company was moving away from the product and I would have change with it, but I was still not fully in control of what was going on around me.  So in hindsight, yes I was complacent in my last role.  But after the slap in the face of being let go, it took me down a few notches.  Yes, I was damn good at what I did.  But I was probably lacking some skill set that would have kept me employed.  So perhaps getting fired this year had to happen for me to learn from it.  To learn more about myself and my skills.  Hell, my attitude.  I told myself when I started the job that I was going to be more assertive.  In the correct way, of course.  Not arrogant, but more relaxed and in tune with who I was and what I can do and where I am in life.
So this year was a year of suck, but it was a year of growth.  A growth I probably really needed and luckily I had a safety net of sorts to get through it.  But I had other things to keep me going. Denise's recovery from fighting cancer.  The wedding of my son to the love of his life.  The birth of my grandson.  My daughter's senior year and the fun of watching her march with the band at football games.
But there was something else.  Something that I've been thinking a lot of lately.
Friends.
In these pictures are people that have supported, stood by, lifted us up, inspired us, etc. In all these pictures, there are smiles. Not sad, mopey faces, but smiles. I couldn't have made it through this year without them. So when people say that 2016 sucked, well, ya, it kinda did. But while it may have sucked, there was also a hell of a lot of excitement and downright fun that was had as well. Alright, on to 2017.