Reflective on the Week

This was the biggest week I’ve ever had professionally, first times include: being on site as executive director of Nine13, new employees, new schools, running the show on my own, working in 6 school sites, doing a 2 school/1 day combo, working with 550+ kids in a single week, 3 media interviews in a week, having sponsors visit program sites, managing the logistics of programming/business needs balance and so much more.

I fell asleep on the couch at 10:30 and woke up this morning with absolutely no idea how I slept that hard.  In fact, I’m still sitting in the same spot on the couch with my laptop writing this post and watching the morning news.  I’m exhausted from this week, my voice is ragged from so much talking, I have blisters, I feel like I’ve run a half marathon with no training and I’m feeling content to sit here and do nothing for a little bit.

a boot of beer and a little tequila thanks to my favorite bartender

I found myself getting dinner at Bakersfield last night; it was a great way to have a bit of reflective on this week and all the things it symbolizes.  I truly believe that when I look back on this week in the future, I’ll view it as a defining series of moments in the growth of the organization.  There were many times where I never thought we’d get to this point, when I pondered if I was foolish for trying to create something from nothing.  This week was reaffirming of the program impact and the reception by administrators, teachers, students, sponsors and media here in Indianapolis.  Maybe I’m wrong, I’ve been wrong many times before about this, but the dam is about to burst and it’s going to be incredible.

This were a ton of hiccups at work this week, from chasing an electric gremlin in our system power box, a company laptop crashing 5 minutes before we had press and a sponsor representative on site, a couple of minor mechanical issues on the bikes, a short in the company trailer that was causing it to short out the running lights and making it impossible to drive at night–but we were able to handle the situations by having the ability to think quickly and fix the issues on the spot without anyone even noticing there was a glitch.

And truly, I owe a personal thanks to two types of people: The first being those that have believed in the mission and my goals and have helped me reach them through their love and support; The second are the naysayers who either have said this couldn’t be done, didn’t have the patience to see it through or tried to create roadblocks along the way–I always like to prove the second type wrong as a bonus to the success side of stuff.

Cheers,

-th