Day 305 - Not how I wanted to start

In January 2011 I found myself fulfilling a goal I had set for myself ever since we moved to Portland.  I started my new job at Nike.

It had been a long time since I had been the new kid anywhere, and anyone who works or has worked at Nike can tell you the first months you feel like you have landed on a different planet.

No one speaks the same language you do, you are set adrift on your own to figure things out, and don't get me started about the "Matrix Organization".

Three months later I would be diagnosed.

My peers have been amazing throughout this entire ordeal (remember the balloons), and today they surprised me with a bottle of champagne to toast the end of my treatments.

I was taken aback when the group thanked me for being so open, and willing to share my cancer experience with them.  They felt really connected to me, and I was able to take the fear out of what they felt was an intensely scary situation.

For me they were a daily source of normalcy.

Going to work made me feel like I was alive.

Made me feel connected.

Made me feel relevant.

Until today I really didn't think of how the last few months have been for them.  How simply watching my physical transformation must have been alarming.

But I also realized that my presence provided a needed dose of reality.  A vivid reminder of what is important in life.

I mean we are selling sneakers people, not curing cancer.

This wasn't the way I wanted to start my career at Nike.

But it sure did make an impact.