What A Decade! The Good, The Bad and the "What...?"

It’s already a few days into 2020 and it’s a crowded market of people writing about this past decade. It almost seemed pointless to contribute another post. But here we are. And I’m the only one of all those “decade in review” authors that lived my life the last ten years.

These past ten years, for me, have been the most full decade of the three that I’ve lived. There has been so much life change. Really high highs. Some lows. And a dramatic decrease in number of miles run from the prior decade.

Somewhere in here we got a cat but I don’t remember when.

February 2010 - Got Engaged

When Megan and I first took our relationship seriously, I made the logical next step and moved to Chicago and made us long distance for about two years. Long distance relationships are easier, right? Despite living in the frozen tundra of Chicago at that time (not knowing I’d be moving to warmer climates soon), Megan still said yes. If I could convince someone like Megan to marry someone like me, maybe I did have a future in marketing?

Fall of 2010 - Ran my first marathon

This also turned out to be my last marathon. After running in college, I did what most of us did upon graduation: train for a marathon. I trained and felt in-shape enough to at least knock out a Boston Marathon qualifying time. In the end, I got heat exhaustion in the race and granny-shuffled the last four miles in. Once I came to the realization that I didn’t actually have to go running every afternoon like I had been the prior 12 years, I decided to not do that anymore.

Spring of 2011 - Got caught in a gang shooting near my office in Chicago

You can read more about that here. Yes, it happened. The next day I got a job offer in a new city that I accepted on the spot. Felt like a close call near my current office was God’s way of saying to change things up a bit.

Spring of 2011 - Started my first agency job in Atlanta

The prior year and a half, I had become Twitter friends with a few agency folks in Atlanta. As it turned out, those folks were all part of the same agency: Engauge. Getting my foot in the door and working at Engauge helped me build a fantastic foundation here in Atlanta. I don’t think I could have worked at a better first job here in Atlanta at that time than there.

Summer 2011 - Lost one of my childhood best friends in a freak accident

I processed all that on a Tumblr (yes, Tumblr) post here. My closest training partner in high school and one of my 2-3 closest friends in the world lost his life getting caught in a riptide. When you’re as young as I was then, people your age aren’t supposed to die. At least not ones you know.

August 2011 - Got Married

2011 fortunately had a significant upward trajectory. After getting engaged in 2010, the next logical step was a wedding. Megan and I celebrated being engaged for 18 months with a wedding in Cincinnati. It was the best day with our closest friends and family…and hard to believe that wedding was almost a decade ago itself!

December 2011 - Got a dog

We got a black lab/pitbull puppy mix named Theo…while we were still living in a one bedroom apartment in Midtown. Needless to say, we didn’t get that security deposit back. Theo is still hanging around, trying his best to be a good big brother to the little ones in the house.

Summer 2012 - Started a new role leading digital at DeMoss

I loved my time at Engauge and still consider it one of my most professionally rewarding places I’ve ever worked. Still, I wanted to try something new and the team at DeMoss wanted me to help them build something at their firm. DeMoss ended up being a wonderful place to work. The team there was incredibly close knit and truly felt like a second family. Plus, I had the opportunity to work on projects unlike anything I’d ever done…or likely will do. It was hands down one of the most interesting places I’ll ever work.

September 2013 - Bought our first home

The housing market in Atlanta was still somewhat in the toilet at the time. Once we figured out it was cheaper for us to have a three bedroom house than rent a one bedroom apartment, we decided to go ahead and buy our dog that backyard he had been wanting.

December 2013 - Airplane crashed behind our house

It was just Theo and I at the house when it happened and man was it bizarre. It was one of those things you hear happen but can’t totally wrap your head around what’s going on in that moment. That was also one of the most unsettling phone calls I had to give Megan (“Hey, so don’t come home right now…”). You can read more about that here.

January 2014 - Said goodbye to a grandfather

He had fought cancer for a few years before finally succumbing to the disease. Grandaddy (my dad’s dad) is someone I know my whole family wanted to emulate in some form or another. His loss was my first significant family loss I had experienced. More here.

August 2015 - Started a new role at North Highland

To reiterate, I loved my time at DeMoss and had a hard time making the decision to transition out. North Highland afforded me the opportunity to get a little more people management skills and get more in the weeds on marketing operation type of work. I spent the next four years in North Highland’s Buckhead office helping build a demand gen system from the ground up.

July 2016 - Got bit by a copperhead snake

This was a weird one. Not much more to say about it other than I was walking the dog (in flip flops) at our in-law’s house and got bit on the foot. Another one of those experiences where you think “Did that really just happen?” in the moment. Scared my wife and I both because she was very much pregnant with our first child at the time. We both learned that, while potentially serious, snake bites do not always mean instant death. I wrote a little more about that here.

October 2016 - Became parents for the first time

Around 2am on October 28th, we gave birth to the most beautiful little girl in the world (and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees). Becoming parents really changed our world and priorities, both personally and professionally. One of the greatest honors I’ve received is being a dad. Not something I take for granted.

December 2016 - Lost a grandmother

I was incredibly thankful that my grandmother made it just long enough to see her great granddaughter. My mom’s mom had been blessed with all grandsons and, while she never said it, likely wanted another female in the mix at some point. Right around the Christmas after Campbell was born, she too passed away from a long cancer fight of her own. I wrote about her life and legacy here.

October 2017 - My first European trip in Ireland

I had seen quite a bit of the contiguous 48 states here but had very little international travel outside of a couple of Caribbean cruises. Megan and I decided we’d celebrate one year of keeping a small human alive with a self guided trip driving ourselves around the wrong side of the road in Ireland. My first trip to Europe. It was hands down one of the best trips (if not the best) I’ve ever been on and loved every second. Except the layover in France on the way there.

July 2018 - Our second child makes his arrival

Megan and I were both only children, so we figured we were only going to have our one daughter and call it a day. That was the plan anyway. God laughed at us and surprised us with a baby boy in July of 2018. It was truly one of the best surprises. Ford is the happiest little guy I think I’ve ever met….and also one of the most mischievous. It’s been fun having another dude in the house and I think Campbell has thrived in her role as a big sister. They’re already best friends and there’s no telling what the two of them will get into down the road.

August 2019 - My wife and I both land new jobs in the same hour

We were driving to Asheville to celebrate both our anniversary and keeping two children alive for a whole year at the same time when Megan received a phone call offering her a new job. About 30 minutes later, I received a phone call myself, landing my current role at Womble Bond Dickinson. The timing of it all made us laugh since it wasn’t the first time we had started new jobs in the same week. We toasted our new season of life of walking around downtown Asheville.

It’s been a heck of a decade and I feel like Megan and I had just about every significant adulting experience one could have in that time. We would like to think that maybe things will slow down this next decade…but know that’s not likely the case.

Chasing around two kids the next 10 years and charting forward a career path in the process? All I know is the next decade probably involves a little more coffee than the last.

A few photos below of the last decade, literally in no particular order because that would’ve taken forever.