Goodbye Hello

Kobe Bryant has left the building. Okay, maybe not Kobe himself, but the bobble head that has adorned the shelf in my office for longer than I can recall is now in a box on my dining room table.

I packed my car full of 5 years worth of media tchotchkes, which was no small feat let me tell you: Cooking Light stationary, an Entertainment Weekly beach mat, NPR coffe mug, City Business Journals desk basketball hoop, and the crowning jewel... the special edition Rockband for Xbox courtesy of a Popular Mechanics raffle. 4 boxes of junk and many goodbyes later, I exited the building with a twinge of nostalgia and a whole lot of garage sale fodder.

I will soon be trading in my corporate souvenirs for a night's rest at a guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur, a bus ride from Chiang Mai to Pai, a guided tour of the temples of Angkor Wat. I'm exchanging the objects of my past for the adventures ahead. There's definitely something freeing in the whole thing, but I must admit that there's a piece of me that will miss some of the indulgent perks of this crazy business.

So long Houston's and your smoked salmon appetizer, how do you do PB&J. See you later spa treatments, nice to meet you nail clippers. We had a good time Joe's jeans, but I'm getting back together with Levi's.

Goodbye 2001 Embarcadero. Hello world.

Graduation

Tomorrow marks the end of an era. We planned. We bought. We partied. And we're out.

My high school experience was not typical. I completed my last 2.5 years of high school through independent study, meaning that it was me and a tutor in a small office once a week. My high school graduation consisted of about 100 individuals, most of them pregnant or over the age of 25, congregating on a stage to receive our diplomas amongst complete strangers. There was no class photo. No yearbooks were signed. Just me, my diploma, and a bunch of people I never knew.

Agency life is a lot like how I imagine high school to be: gossiping about who hooked up last weekend, sneaking off campus at lunchtime, bitching about that unreasonable teacher (client), and making some really great friends along the way.

Today we sat around the table at lunch and talked about what we would miss most about ZO, and the unanimous answer was each other. There is no doubt that some of the best friendships I've made over the years have been born from this agency. So tomorrow we put on our caps and gowns (flip flops and jeans), collect our diplomas (final paycheck) and sign each other's yearbooks (facebook wall posts). I never had a senior year in high school, but senior year at ZO has been the time of my life. Congrats to all the grads, have a great summer, K.I.T., and I'll see you at the pool!