Jan 27
SolidWorks World 2011 – A Personal Reflection
When the operating system within every individual begins its inevitable shut down process, some question should be asked about the life that you led. How one answers these questions will not gain them VIP access to the ultimate after-party nor will they cause you to stay after class with the other rule-breakers, the ones that I call my friends. These questions are merely meant for self-reflection and to remind us that our life is what we make of it. For in the grand scheme of things, we are all insignificant carbon-based lifeforms wandering around on a semi-spherical rock, circling an average star in the outer band of a spiral galaxy floating among billions of other galaxies in a soup of light elements and dark matter. Our life span, even if it were to equal that of the wise tortoise or the mighty redwood, would be but a glint of light in the unblinking eyes of time.
How we, as the current inhabitants of the third rock from the sun, live our lives does not matter to the universe. The universe has no memory, no scorecard, not even a wiki. When the time comes to press Alt-F4, you should be able to look at the following questions and be happy with your answers.
1. Did I make the most of my life?
2. Was I loved?
3. Did I love?
4. Did I leave the legacy that I deserve?
Don’t wait till your last service pack has been delivered and your product cycle is nearing its end. Look at the questions now. Think long and hard about your answer and ask yourself these questions at the end of each day.
Regardless of who we are or how we lived are life, most of us should be able to answer positively for most of these questions a majority of the time. There are some people who can answer positively to all the questions, all the time….they scare me. I think they just haven’t married yet.
If you cannot answer any of the questions positively, it does not mean that you are a bad person or broken in some way. Instead it means that you haven’t learned to recognize how others have impacted your life or how you have made an impact on the lives of others. Sometimes it is hard to see what is right in front of us through the dark cloud that may sometimes envelope certain times of our life. We just need an event to remind us. Something to guide us from the darkness like the lighthouse guides the lost sailor on a stormy night.
As a father of four amazing kids who will grow up to be great generals in the geek army, I know that I am loved and that I have definitely loved. I cannot be more proud of all of my kids and I am secure in knowing that my legacy lies within them. I have never forgotten that, nor will I ever forget. But one cannot cheat when answering these questions by filling in the bubble next to the most obvious answer. Sometimes “(c) Both ‘a’ and ‘b’ are correct” is the correct answer.
Every year, around this time, SolidWorks World makes it easier for me to know how I will respond to my own exit interview. Every year, as the pre-show buzz grows from a whisper to a defining rumble in the SolidWorks community, memories of past SolidWorks World are moved from cold storage backup and placed right on my mental desktop for daily reflection. I begin to think about the many amazing people that I have met through out the years in the community. I start to look forward to reconnecting with some of my closest friends in the world but only see once a year. I recall funny experiences and sometimes chuckle out loud prompting strange looks from the old lady in front of me while I wait in the line at the bank.
As my departure day for SolidWorks World grows near, my excitement builds to an unimaginable level. The night before leaving I am like an 11 year old boy on x-mas eve who cannot sleep because he is thinking about getting a red rider BB gun. Without fail, by the time I set foot onto the plane, I am utterly exhausted and sleep deprived but I am too damn excited to care.
This year, at SolidWorks 2011 in San Antonio Texas, I reconnected with my fellow bloggers, writers and other media types. I enjoyed quality time with my two brothers separated at birth: Jeff Mirisola and Matt Lorono. I swapped stories with some of the coolest geeks you can ever meet. I even met some members of the community who where obviously off of their meds because they refereed to themselves as “fans” when they introduced themselves to me.
I had an amazing week and I have every member of the SolidWorks community to thank for it. Whether you were in San Antonio with us or you just followed along with your tweets and messages, you all made me and the other bloggers definitely feel loved.
I am writing this on the plane as I leave San Antonio and the women sitting next to me is a nervous flyer. I wish I can share with her my personal secret for not being scared. I would tell her that if I were to join Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper; I would be happy with my answers to the four questions. Being a father, blogger, writer and the geek overload has been the best thing that I have ever done with my life and I cannot wait until February 2012 to do this all over again.
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