11 Years...

As I drove through West Texas today I was reminded of the drive I made between Lubbock and Amarillo almost exactly 11 years ago.  With a freshly minted MS in Mechanical Engineering, I was off to a job interview with Corning in a fiber processing plant that was the closest thing I could find to an engineering job within a (somewhat) reasonable driving distance to where I was living. It had been a tough few months between moving, family issues and severe anxiety over my inability to find a job that utilized the degree I had just spent 5 years laboring for.  

I don't remember much about the interview but I do remember stopping at the Palo Duro Canyon to watch the sunset and reflect on how'd I'd gotten where I was and where the path I was on that was seeming to go nowhere would end up.  The rejection letter for the job that I was frankly overqualified for was one of many humility building experiences over the following years including my first job out of grad school which was a temp assignment cleaning up after Disney on Ice at the local arena, which my crew of mostly ex-cons got fired from after 2hrs of work that began at 5am and earned me a whopping $16.

Several months later, I took a much longer drive to Austin for a job interview that ended up panning out into the most life changing (good and bad) and rewarding experiences I've encountered in my short time here on earth.  There has been heartache, struggle, and many ups and downs along the way but I find myself 11 years later with a cup running over with more than I could have ever imagined, especially on that day I sat overlooking the sun setting into the West Texas red dirt.  

Proverbs 16:9 says "In his heart man plots his course, but the Lord establishes his steps," steps that aren't always easy but include blessings you and I could never fathom nor earn through any works of our own...