A Chance to Rewrite History

Around this time in March of 2003, I was counting down the days until my very first trip to Seattle, where I would be living a childhood dream and attending my first ever WrestleMania. At the same time, I was torn apart and stressed out about the job situation, having to choose between two great companies knowing that I would be burning bridges with one to go to the other.

Flash forward to present day March 2006: Three years and so many frequent flyer miles that I’ve earned a free trip to anywhere in the United States later, I embark on another weekend trip to Seattle. In 23 days, I will be living that childhood dream again by attending my second WrestleMania which I truly believe will be just as memorable as the first not only because it is happening in the best city in the world, CHICAGO (cheap Mick Foley pop), but also because I’ll be sitting ringside at the big event, the pinnacle in sports entertainment.

As the joy and excitement has been building, however, so has the stress and anxiety about my current job situation. Again, I am faced with the choice of working for either of two great companies knowing that the announcement will surely burn a bridge with one of those companies.

Notice the eerie similarities?

While I’m pretty good at not second guessing my own decisions, when it comes to the choice I made between the two jobs three years ago, I can’t help but ask myself more and more, “What if I chose the other job instead?”

By no means do I regret the decision I made. Working for the largest private company in the world is a pretty smart choice (but then again, working for one of the top Fortune 500 companies would have sounded good as well). And if it wasn’t for the place where I worked, I wouldn’t have met so many people who are now my friends even after the sad events that took place in the later part of last year.

Although the more I think of the order of those events, from the announcement to the eventual demise, I still can’t help but ask myself if I had made the right choice. Would my situation now be any different if I had chosen the other job? Hopefully that question will go away with my acceptance of an offer at the new job that I will start on Monday. After three plus years of wondering “What if,” I finally get a chance to see what the other path would have been like, and I definitely plan on making the most of that opportunity.