Today is, more or less the one year anniversary of my two week quarantine. March 20th, is the anniversary of my aunt Nancy’s death due to Covid-19 that she contracted from her nursing home. Her death was devastating to myself and my family. Adding insult to injury was having to hold the funeral on Facebook live and not in person like before the pandemic. Not being able to do so made it feel like the connections with family and friends was beginning to melt away and the news on the spread on the virus continued to be discouraging and bleak. I can remember the day it all began for me. I was working in the basement of a government building in Atlanta, GA in close quarters with about 40 other people in cubicles. We all had been hearing stories of co-workers who had come down with what we thought at the time was the flu and were suffering more than usual. At this stage no one knew much of anything — just rumors mostly. I remember we would all gather together and exchange stories of what we heard in regard to what was going on within our department and the outside world. Inevitably a person from our department had been diagnosed after exposing who knows how many people in our building. Soon word came that they were evacuating the building so that it may be disinfected and to leave immediately and then return to following day. Then the following day turned into the day after that, then the day after that one then finally landing on two weeks.
During that time, most work was done over the phone and via emails. We had already transitioned to Microsoft teams but not yet utilizing the video. My coworkers were excited about finally being able to work from home and being able to work in a relaxing environment. We soon learned , the “Stay at home order” was updated from one day to two weeks which soon became a month to month basis.
As more information about the virus was uncovered, doctors began to realize that the virus was affecting a particular group of people the hardest; African American people over 50 who had pre-existing conditions like diabetes or heart disease. Yep I’m all three of those. I was diagnosed with have high blood pressure roughly 20 years ago. At the same time I began to realize based on the Federal govenernment response that this may go on for quite a while and I should probably take things into my own hands. I also noticed that people were beginning to hoarde groceries and toilet paper in some kind of low simmering panicked response to the situation. So I began to do a little research on what people did to pass the time during previous pandemics and how they coped. In my research I found that some people took advantage of the all the free time they had on their hands during isolation and did some of their best works. Sir Isaac Newton was able to thrive being isolated from this professors at Cambridge in what he described as “the year of wonders”. His research became the foundation of what we now consider to be calculus and lets not forget about what happened to him under that apple tree. Shakespeare went to write King Lear during the plague. Leonardo Di Vinci discovered better ways to design cities and is what we call urban planning today. Do I consider myself to be anything close to those guys? Absolutely not! But I definitely became inspired by them.
By this time it was April and I was celebrating my birthday with a barbecue like I usually do, but this time instead of a huge party with family and friends it was just my wife and my son. With no cure or an end to quarantine in sight I decided that I was going to take this time to take that inspiration from Shakespeare, Di Vinci and Newton and mix it up with inspitation from the Skackelton Expedition.
Strong body, strong mind…right?
I figured the first thing that I was going to do was to set a goal for myself physically. At the time i was weighing in at 185lbs. As I mentioned before, I was working in a cubicle in a a practically windowless basement for 8 hours a day. My son attended school on the other side of town which meant that I spent anywhere between 90 minutes to 3 hours a day in traffic between getting to work, picking him up and returning home. Besides that, working downtown, there werent exactly a lot of healthy options for lunch. It was not an ideal situation for anyone. The stress of my working conditions and the constant driving, plus pour diet really caused me to pack on the pounds. But now I didnt have to drive for hours nor did I have to eat fast food garbage for lunch. My son’s school transitioned to online as did my job. I was at home so I had greater control of my diet and now I was able to reclaim the time I spent daily in traffic. The big question for me now was “How was I going to use that time?’.
After long consideration I decide on running. Before I took that job downtown I had a completely different schedule that afforded me time to spend in the gym with my wife. When I met her she was would get up at 4am to go to the gym and work out and if i wanted to spend time with her that meant that I to would get up at 4am and go to the gym. But with my new job and new schedule that had gone out the window. Now without having to deal with traffic I had that time again. But the gyms where closed so I had to improvise. Besides, running is probably the most affordable of any exercise. All you need are shoes. The only way that I could exercise and remain safe would be to run outdoors. I decided that i was going to get in shape and run the Peachtree Road Race(America’s biggest 5k race). I mapped out a 5k route in my neighborhood and began running it everyday. I’m not going to lie, the first couple of weeks I hated it but kept at it even though it was painful. But as I kept going the pain subsided but I also began to feel more focused than ever before.
My runs began to be meditative , I began having vivid and creative ideas — I think they call it runner’s high. Whatever you want to call it, I began to become more inspired to set even more goals for myself beyond the Peachtree Road Race. Because of health and safety reasons because of the pandemic it was delayed from an in person race on July 4th to virtual Thanksgiving race. It was then when I began to think about what other things I could achieve. I was already becoming more healthy with my weight and blood pressure dropping and it made me wonder what other goals should I set.
I also decided to become more involved with my environment as well so I began attending Neighboorhood Planning Unit meetings once a month. This was a great opportunity for me to attempt to make external change not just mental and phyiscal. And it felt good to be a part of a group of like minded individuals who felt the same as I about changing the neighborhood for the better.
New me, who dis?
During this time as many of you would remember, was a tumultuous time in this country as well as around the world. Black Lives Matter protests where occuring, corporations where finally showing their employees a little respect and because people where working from home and not driving, polution levels had dropped. The world had transformed itself into a better and worse place simultaneously and It was at this time I decided that once this pandemic was over, I was not going to be the same person that I was before but better.
I took inventory of myself, I wanted to strengthen my weaknesses, and take my strengths and make them stronger. At this point I had been working in tech as an IT Manager for the last 20 years supporting desktops and networks within a physical space. But now that physical space was non-existent with remote work. So I decided on remaining in tech but focusing on an aspect that required no physical space — software development. So I began researching software bootcamps.
After weeks of research I came to the conclusion that the best option for me would be to enroll in General Assembly Software Engineering Immersive 12 week bootcamp. It was a huge risk to even consider doing such a thing especially at my age — but on the other hand, why not?
The cohort began in October and the experience I had was one of the most enjoyable if not the most experiences I had in years. It was definitely a challenging time for me both in and out of class. Inclimate weather caused my power to go out completely a couple of times and I had to attend class on my cell phone which sucked. I don’t know if any of you ever had to attend a Zoom class on you phone plugged into your car lighter before but I can assure you that the condition was considerably less than ideal. I normally would have gone to a Starbucks or public library in this case but guess what? Closed to do the pandemic. Awesome! I also had to train for the race while simultaneously keeping up with the rigorous coursework of the bootcamp. It was a lot to take on both physically, mentally and emotionally.
I tried not to let it get to me completely but I would be lying if I said it didn’t get to me at all. There were plenty of times that i felt like I couldn’t continue but I had to keep going because of all the goals I had set for myself. I was tired and sore from the workouts and from loss of sleep because of all the anxiety I was experiening due to the pressure. My brain was fried from the intensity of the coursework. But I wasn’t going to stop until I made it all the way to the end. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone who was rooting for me and most of all I didn't want to let myself down.
Midway though was Thanksgiving and it was time to run the race which I was able to complete. Being able to to do that gave me the boost I needed to finish the cohort. But with that goal down what would be next?
At about the same time was the Neighborhood Planning Unit board elections and I was nominated to serve as Vice Chairman. I was flattered to be nominated to take part in this on an executive level. It seemed like just a few months ago I was the new guy but now I’m the nominee. I got in front of the members of neighborhood and shared with them my plans and ideas about what direction I felt the neighborhood should go and a majority of them agreed with me, which was reflected in the election results.
PMPin’ ain’t easy
For years I had wanted to get my PMP certification but with my schedule when would I be able to study. The exam is really tough and before I didn’t have much time for myself as it was let alone to study with all the driving I was doing but now I did. While I was considering a bootcamp I had also considered persuing a certificate in project management but due to the pandemic all classes where cancelled and most schools offering it had no information on whether they would be having classes in person or remote. That was one of the reasons I chose General Assembly at the time. But mere days after I completed the Peachtree Road Race I recieved and email stating that Georgia Tech would be resuming their certificate program remotely. The first classes would begin in Febuary mere days after the General Assembly cohort ended. If that wasn’t I sign I don’t know what is so I signed up immediately.
Software Development and Project Management go together like bread and butter. Most of the development is done using agile methodology and now I posses the knowlege and understanding on how to be a successful manager in theory at least. So where do i go now? Now I have to begin studying for the PMP exam and I think that I may also look into certifications in SCRUM/Agile methodologies. I plan on running the Peachtree Road Race again this year but in person on July 4th. The NPU has recently been awarded a grant that is going to be used to improve the parks and public spaces in the neighboorhood. I could say that have achieved a lot over the last year. But I don’t feel like it’s over but actually the beginning. Once I have achieved these goals I plan on becoming a transformative change to the tech industry. I feel that with my many years experience and what I have recently learned that I can bring real and tangible change wherever I end up and I hope to inspire others to bring positive change and progress wherever they are.
