So things have come to an end for my stay in California. This was the summer of my life. You can’t dream dreams better than this experience. I can truly say that this was the best decision I could have made. I’m glad that in August I can be proud of the blind leap of faith that I took in March.
Why was this summer a success? First, and foremost, I had a great project and a great team. We had one of the strongest, if not the strongest, MBAs in Ivan who had a tremendous technical background to couple with his business knowledge. In fact, Ivan should get a lot of credit for our success as he helped us solve one of our mission critical problems with Axis early in the summer. Extreme Blue will forever be re-defined by the graphics work of Kelvin Jiang. If you need to understand basic, yet stunning, graphical design, then look no further than the work of Kelvin. He was awarded with special commendation at the end of the week, and he truely deserved it. And last, but definitely not least, we had Matt. Matt pushed us through to the end, and continuously forced us to be excellent through his pessimissim/realism. We were excellent because we had an excellent team. It reminds of a great line from, “Remember the Titans” where one of the players said, “I’m not perfect, [you’re] not perfect, but this team is perfect.” That’s exactly how I felt at the end of last week.
Why else was this summer so successful? I learned a lot. I learned that to reach the top, you have to demand that people keep pushing you. When you get there, don’t forget to turn around and help them up. I learned that alcohol may not be the best beverage when mixed with computer scientists. I learned that distance can create a relationship before it ever has the chance to destroy that relationship. When you learn, you grow. I’ve grown up a lot this summer.
There still has to be more reasons. Well, that’s true. We got to go to LinuxWorld this week, and that was spectacular. We got loads of free stuff. We demonstrated our product. And we created buzz about Eclipse OHF. I’m also on the verge of becoming an Eclipse Committer. Then, I can truly say that I’ve used my talents to create something better for the world. It’s a good beginning to my eventual goal to take over this silly planet.
The icing on the cake was the friendships that I created; friendships that I know will last beyond this summer. My room mate Meshkat is one of the smartest people I know. He’s quietly a genius. We watched the World Cup together and played poker together. We went dancing, yachting, and dining. He always smiled, and made the people around him laugh. He’s a great guy. I’ve already lauded over how great my team mates were, so they don’t get anymore face time. The staff of EB helped change our world. I think I’ve now opened doors that I didn’t know existed. My mentor helped me realize that I need to become my dream so that I can make it come true. And California helped me chill out and enjoy the little things.
Good-bye IBM. Good-bye San Jose. I’m leaving you now, but you’ll always hold a special place in my heart.