| | thanksgiving reflections + a slideshow of sorts
how's it going guys? i hope you and your families had a nice thanksgiving holiday. as for myself, i've been back in new york enjoying the holiday weekend with family and friends. it's been so long that i've had anything truly personal to share on xanga, but i figured that if there is one time of the year to express my gratitude and reflect on how things have been going in my life, thanksgiving seems like an opportune occasion. so, what all am i thankful for? let's see...
my family -- this one's an easy call and needs no introduction. i wouldn't be much of anything without the care and support of my family. now that i've moved out of new york (more on this later), the importance of family in my life has taken on a new meaning, and i'm happy that i'm starting to get into a point of my life where i can begin giving back to them in a meaningful way.
my friends -- for a lot of the same reasons why i'm thankful for having a great family, i'm also thankful for my friends. now that it's been over three years since i graduated from college (and over seven years since high school), i've got a newfound appreciation for the friendships i've had that have withstood the test of the time. i'm also grateful for the new people i met in the last year who've invited me to be a part of their lives, especially during my early days in texas when i really didn't know anyone there (again, more on this later).
my job -- although this is old news to most people who know me in person, i'll probably have to fill in some of the gaps for those of you that only know me via my blog. after having lived in new york for over 20 years -- namely the first 18 years of my life, as well as the 2.5 years after i graduated from college -- i decided to pack up and move to dallas in march 2008 for a new job. at the time, i knew hardly anyone in dallas, but i figured everything would eventually be OK once i got acclimated to the area.
as a way of background, i'd previously worked for a couple of the major investment banks in new york. they were a good place for me to start my career in finance, but after grinding out the long hours, hectic corporate culture, and a variety of other things that weren't good for my mental sanity, i was more than ready to move on to my present role in private equity. i had received my offer from my current employer the day before thanksgiving last year (ironically), and things couldn't have worked out any better. with the credit crisis beginning to rear its ugly head in the fall of 2007, i seized the opportunity to make the jump from the investment banking world to private equity. when i left my previous job in february 2008, things on wall street (especially at the big banks) began to sour; and while i'd like to think that i had some type of special insight in terms of the timing of my departure, it was really more fortuitous than anything else. i really couldn't have imagined the meltdown that we're experiencing today. as i look at what's been happening across all the big banks, i definitely felt like i dodged a bullet -- it's incredible how quickly and how severely conditions on wall street have deteriorated, and i think that if i had waited just a few more months before pursuing my current career goals, things probably wouldn't have worked out as well for me.
i'm hoping that economies worldwide will begin to stabilize sometime before the end of 2009. however, in the meantime, i count my blessings every day for the job i have. obviously we're far from immune from all the stuff that's happening in the markets. there are any number of "pundits" out there who believe that private equity will be the next shoe to drop; i hope that they're wrong, but it's too early to tell. but as long as i still have my job, i'll remain grateful for the people with whom i work (all of whom i admire and respect) and the new things i've been learning every day. furthermore, i feel like this is the line of work that i can see myself doing for the long haul, which is pretty cool. it's definitely true when people say that you're more likely to appreciate a good thing after you've gone through the bad -- for me, it's nice to finally be part of a normal workplace and to be able to wake up in the morning actually feeling excited about work every day.
my health -- if i had written a similar blog entry in 2007, it's not particularly likely that i would have been as thankful about my health as i am now. in january 2007, i began to experience soreness in my lower back that i thought was the result of hitting the gym too hard a couple of times. my workout routine was pretty standard, and included deadlifts and leg squats at the time (and which i no longer do). i figured that resting for a couple days would make things better, but in fact my back only got worse. i decided to skip out on the gym for the rest of the week in hopes that i would feel better, but for some reason, things continued to get worse. i recognized that my job was getting progressively stressful, but it never really occurred to me to get checked out by a physician until i started experiencing tingling and loss of sensation in my right leg. eventually, the condition worsened, i couldn't sit for more than 20 minutes without experiencing dull pain in my right leg, and the only way to shake the pain off and regain sensation in my leg was to stumble around for a couple minutes until the nerve compression subsided.
eventually, things got bad enough in march 2007 that i decided to get an MRI, and also see an orthopedist and physiatrist about my condition. i ended up getting diagnosed with herniated discs at L3-L4 and L5-S1. while herniated discs are fairly common back injuries, it was a weird experience for me to go through as an otherwise healthy and physically active 23-year-old male. but evidently the herniations were severe enough that there was considerable compression against my sciatic nerve, which is what caused my lower back and leg to lose feeling from time to time.
fortunately, after three epidural injections in my spine (even under local anesthesia, having a huge needle being stuck in between your vertebrae is not a fun experience) and over a year of going to physical therapy twice a week, i'm feeling a lot better. while there were times during which i felt resigned to having back pain for the rest of my life, i never lost my overall optimism. i have to give a lot of credit to my physicians and physical therapists, and also attribute a big part of my improvement to my being in a much better work environment. in fact, i now feel as healthy as i've ever been. my overall conditioning has allowed me to hit the weight room twice a week, do yoga once a week, and compete on a dallas USTA men's tennis team. i never really figured i'd be able to exercise as much as i do especially given the injuries i've experienced over the years, but here i am. life has a funny way of working out for the better sometimes.
relationships -- the last thing i'm grateful for this year is a bit different from the other four things i mentioned, at least in the sense that it's now just a thing of the past. but it would be unfair for me not to be thankful for my relationship with my most recent girlfriend. jane and i had dated since may 2006, and we went out for over two years. i'm single now and am happy with the way things are going; that said, jane was a major reason for the good times in my life during the last two years and i wish her all the best. being with jane taught me the importance of patience, compassion, and understanding. it also helped me realize how important it is to make time for people i know, and that i'd rather have a good work-life balance than be a corporate slave (no matter how much anyone pays me).
i could probably write more about things that have happened in the last year, but i'm ready to put my pen down. i'll let some photos do the talking from here:
 
LEFT: w/ friends for my 24th birthday @ zanzibar in nyc (dec '07); RIGHT: w/ mom and sis @ the christmas markets in munich last december LEFT: w/ mom in innsbruck, with austrian alps in the background; RIGHT: in front of schonnbrun palace in vienna LEFT: w/ jane @ aquavit cafe in nyc; RIGHT: skiing w/ jane in the poconos (jan '08) LEFT: more skiing in the poconos w/ friends; RIGHT: w/ jane @ bond st in nyc (feb '08) LEFT: my going-away dinner @ aja in nyc (feb 2008); RIGHT: going-away gathering, part II @ morgans hotel in nyc  
LEFT: my apartment complex in dallas; RIGHT: the interior of my apartment (before it got cluttered with all my junk) LEFT: @ some beach in aruba (sep 2008); RIGHT: halloween in nyc LEFT: more halloween craziness; RIGHT: with friends & fellow alums @ stanford leading matters conference in dallas (nov '08)
well, that's pretty much the last year of my life in a nutshell. i hope you guys enjoyed the mini slideshow.
what have you been most thankful for in 2008? |
| | Posted 11/29/2008 11:11 AM - 227 Views - 40 eProps - 23 comments
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