For posterity’s sake

Seven years ago, yesterday, I packed up everything I owned, left many friends behind in San Diego, and moved to San Francisco, (where I knew absolutely no one) to start my job at HotWired on August 12, 1996. The Creative Director hired me as a junior designer, since I knew very little about design for the Web, despite the fact that I had more print design experience than almost every other designer there at the time.

Three months after starting the low-paying job, I was depressed, out of money, missed my friends in San Diego, and was convinced I had made the wrong move. I gave notice, told my landlord I was moving out, and arranged to go back to my old job at a design agency in San Diego. Two days before I was to leave HotWired, Jonathan Louie (Design Director at the time) convinced me otherwise, offering me a new position and my first promotion of many more to come. I stayed, and lost a girlfriend in San Diego as a result.

Fast-forward to the present…

In two days, it will have been 9 months since I left Wired to go out on my own. Friends who know the journey and my initial intimidation of taking the job at HotWired say to me, “…and look where you are now.”