Sponsorship

Today has been absurd. The good kind of absurd, though.

Now fully unwound on this Friday night, I am now aware of how much today was actually the end of my year. It's curious, especially since I have another week of classes, four finals, and numerous hours devoted to senior design left between me and graduation. Still, it seems - right now in this moment - like I am finished. Some combination of today's events have left me feeling strangely at peace about packing up my life and trucking halfway across the country (halfway is really as far as I can go considering that I'm starting in Illinois).

The bulk of today was spent up in Neenah, WI at Plexus corp. presenting our senior design project and watching the other presentations also there. It was a sponsorship thing; they promised us money, and we promised to keep them in the loop about our project. Along the way, we are free to ask them questions about any part of our project. Then, at the end of it all, we truck on up to their HQ and present our project to them (and get a tour of the facilities to boot). Their sponsorship worked out better than I ever could have hoped: not only did they help us attain a seemingly-nonexistent part, but they provided invaluable advice and answers. Even if money was not part of the equation, I would still have pushed my group to go for the sponsorship knowing what I now know. Though I'm not complaining about the monetary segment of the sponsorship - we will end up paying less than $10 each for our entire project. Oh, and there is the minor detail of them giving me a job post-graduation, which is far and above the most significant portion (my group members be damned).

It was weird going back to the HQ in Neenah. The last time I was there, I spent most of the day in interviews. I was scared and excited and trying desperately to prove my worth - and apparently I did a good job. While I didn't end up getting a job in Neenah (I wouldn't be freaking out nearly as much about moving 4 hours from home), the team that interviewed me liked me enough to recommend me to Raleigh when it because clear there were no jobs for me to have (oops). I saw a lot of the folks that interviewed me back in February, each of them seemed pleased to see me, and asked abut my start date in Raleigh, etc, etc. They seemed genuinely pleased that I had taken a job with the company, and I felt happier for it. Everything seems to be reinforcing the good feelings I have about this move and this job - I haven't doubted it for much time at all. I also ran into a friend with whom I had classes at MSOE who now worked as a Software Engineer for Plexus. I got to ask him how things were, how the job felt, and how he liked the work. It was incredibly comforting to hear someone with the same major as me speak highly of the company - and to seem confident in the job. I worry about these things (needlessly, apparently).

Out presentation went well, and the engineers seemed interested in our project. We got to meet the people who had been helping us via email all year long, and chatted with them about the problems we had. The server and hardware survived the trip relatively unharmed, and our demo went down without a hitch. It was satisfying, having everything work (although apparently there was a typo in the powerpoint, I haven't checked). Once our sponsors (and my future employers) were happy with us, I was happy with us. They seemed impressed with our (likely under-informed) decision to take on the project, and they seemed even more impressed with the amount of progress we have made on it.

But Senior Design didn't monopolize the whole day. A majority of the senior CEs headed over to Rock Bottom for a celebratory dinner put on by our program director, which was a blast. Dinner, and the conversation surrounding it, was another catalyst in my feeling more at peace than I did a day ago. These people - the select people with whom I am graduating with that I respect (it is a subset, I promise) are my peers - my friends. They are the people I will likely talk to for the rest of my life regardless of geographical constraints. They are just as excited about their new endeavours as am I, and our collective insanity is what will keep us friends. Yes, it's mushy, but you have to understand: while at Rock Bottom, enjoying the conversation and the company, we discovered a concoction so delicious it borders on dangerous. You see, Rock Bottom will, for a pittance, blend their pale ale with a shot of gin for your intense drinking pleasure. What may sound marginal at best is, assuming you enjoy gin, fantastic. For some reason, the flavours work together in an incredible fashion to form a new drink with the feel and taste of a lighter beer but the delicious aftertaste of gin. It is absolutely fantastic. It is also incredibly potent.

My headphones are more comfortable when I'm not wearing glasses.