Sometimes, lately, I do feel like I’m living that John Lennon song…
Why on earth do people keep asking if I’m okay…if I’m adjusting to my new role…if I’m happy???
This week I’ve had, at last count, five people ask me how I’m doing. One of my BA coworkers said something to the effect of, “Oh, that’s right…you’re doing both now…” You know, in that judgmental tone of voice adopted by people who disapprove of bisexual people. I corrected her, “I’m actually NOT…I’m a developer now.” There was dead silence on the other end of the phone. “Oh…” Like I’d just told her that someone in the family died. .
I had a one-on-one with our tech lead today, and again…”How are you doing? Is there anything I can do for you?” I suspect this was a result of that crazy call yesterday when they found out that I’d run 1008 GUnit tests I didn’t need to, and was a bit fuzzy about complicated GitHub procedures. The good news is our offshore guy finished my code review and approved it, so I was able to tell her that. I also picked out another user story, which sounds ballsy, I know, but there’s a method to my madness. Our former team member partially completed it before he left and it’s a tech debt story. I figure this is a serious opportunity to learn from someone and figure out how to modify actual Gosu code at the same time—the quintessential case of “Copying off Tim’s Homework”…
My boss asked me the other day how I’m doing, but in his case I think he’s just excited for me. Also, seeing as the company has made a major investment in me, I suspect people above him desperately want to see it pay off.
My favorite was my friend at the gym. I call her “the old lady,” but she’s probably around my age. “What the hell is coding? Why do you want to do THAT? Why aren’t you just retiring?”
Honestly, am I happy? I am grateful each and every day that I no longer drive to work, sit in the car in the parking lot, and just DREAD going in the building. Every day is a new adventure. I swear, the company trained me and are paying me money to have a good time every day, solving interesting problems. It’s like an entire day of Sudoku and crosswords, only with a nifty computer that can churn through an entire suite of tests in an hour (even though I wasn’t supposed to do those).
Am I okay? I won the freakin’ LOTTERY!