I know I have been particularly quiet these past 6 weeks. I have been in an all day tech program during which I expected to have more time to blog. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Between the weekly 9-5 schedule of the program and having to do my best to stay on top of my work the rest of the time, I have been, at least I hope, noticeably silent. But my time once again becomes my own this Friday at 5pm and that is none too soon for me.
To be completely frank, I am torn between going on an all out rant and swallowing this one down like a bitter pill. As much as I would like to rant away, the internet is forever, so I will (mostly) hold my tongue and go for some middle ground. I have worked extremely hard to make participating in this program possible, including taking a 6-week almost-hiatus from work, turning down gigs and working days that I prefer not to. I did this because the program sounded full of promise. Unfortunately, said program was unable to deliver. Instead of the 6 wonderful weeks I anticipated, I ended up with 6 weeks of mediocre, often frustrating and usually unsatisfying days.
So why did I stick it out? A couple of reasons. The first being that I have met some amazing people with whom I intend to stay in touch with long after this experience is a distant memory. The second is purely mercenary. There is a good likelihood that despite the mediocrity of the program itself, it may serve my future professional goals. Depending on what the future looks like, it may turn out that I never tap into the potential benefit that my participation may provide. However, it seemed like dropping out was not the right answer for me.
And did I mention that it was not entirely a waste of my time? I did get to do a daily bike commute in which I racked up over 250 miles. And the bike commute reminded me of just how much I enjoy riding my bike, despite having left it sitting neglected in our shed for way too many years. Which reminds me of a strange anecdote that I would like to share.
My bike has an integrated biker-powered set of front and rear lights. During the course of my time in the program (how ominous does that sound?) someone cracked open my front light casing and stole my light bulb. That was all he/she took. Just the light bulb. In the process, the light bulb thief irreparably broke the housing leaving me with a $70 repair bill. However, I am choosing to focus on all the money I have saved and will continue to save on batteries by powering my lights myself.
Ok, so I didn’t quite deliver the rant I promised in the title, but the process of writing out the full rant and then editing it down for public consumption was cathartic, and I am feeling better than I did when I started this post. Just don’t be surprised if little bits of snark make it into future posts while I do my best to keep my best face forward.