JaredBoothe

I’m usually a private person.  This means that regularly maintaining a blog, or a ‘status’ on a social media page is just not something that is super appealing to me.  Many times I have an idea of something that I’d like to say or share, but before I do I usually over-analyze about what it might mean to others.  The same goes for this blog post.  But, I’ve decided that while it may not flow nicely, and is probably full of rambling, I’ll just put it out there anyway.

I feel like people either vent their frustrations (which all of your ‘friends’ really don’t need to hear) or share only the positives of their lives.  That doesn’t really paint a very accurate picture though.  Maybe if people posted a few times a day and you followed their statuses closely you’d get a better picture, but why not give them a call, or go out to lunch with them instead?  Generally our lives aren’t all that exciting.  We have exciting times and experiences, but with the wide array of contacts on these sites where there are so many stages of life that people are in, it can become a bit depressing to see all of the exciting things people are doing when you are just trying to survive the daily grind.  Not that I’m unhappy or anything like that, we’re just at a point in our lives where vacationing/etc isn’t much of an option, and that is perfectly fine.  I just don’t need to be reminded of it on a regular basis.  Hence, my significant lack of presence on these sites.

Anyway, back to the thought of reflection.  Because I’m not super active on these things, there isn’t really much there to see.  That is also the same with this blog.  However, I did look back at some of my first posts.  My first one on this blog being when I first moved to Texas and officially started my career.  Technically I started it about a year prior as I was doing consulting work, but this would be my first time working as an employee in the field of my degree.  I had plenty of jobs/experiences prior to that, and they were all pretty good in their own ways.  Many of them were steps forward, and a few were steps backward.  Just the nature of the beast.

There has been quite a bit that has changed over the last six years since we’ve been in Texas.  We are much more integrated now, but yet often feel like outcasts.  It is interesting.  We’re not quite sure if this is where we belong or not.  Again, a few steps forward, and a few steps backward.  This summer we’ll be having our second child, which is awesome.  Like I said, quite a bit has changed.  But after we return back to a bit of a normal routine later this year, we’ll continue to evaluate if our current home/neighborhood/city/etc is where we want to be for the next several years or not.  It may or may not end up being the right time to change things up.  Just things that are under consideration if the conditions are right.  Most likely we’ll be staying in our current home for a while, but who knows what the future will bring.

There have been a significant amount of changes at work since I last posted.  I feel like my career is finally in a position to take off.  I no longer feel like I just have a foot-in-the-door position.  I’m looking forward to being considered ‘career level’ at this company here in the next couple of years.  That will be a great accomplishment.  Assuming, of course, we stay here.  My attitude towards work has changed dramatically over the years as well, especially as my responsibilities have increased and broadened.  I look more at the big picture, and less at the individual tasks at hand.  Sure, they need attention, but their overall context plays a much larger role.  My priorities are much more business-owner driven, rather than task driven.  I am much happier now in my current role as far as my day-to-day responsibilities.  I’m just not entirely sure about the group that I’m in.  I don’t know if it is a good long-term fit.

For years now, all I’ve wanted to do for employment is VHDL programming.  For some reason when I was in college this language just clicked for me.  In my current position now, I’m doing primarily VHDL at work, and it is fantastic.  Unfortunately, in the group that I am in, that is not the norm.  Working with management, there is the possibility of moving to another group which is indeed predominantly VHDL-based sometime this summer.  This is a huge motivator for me.  Looking back, it has definitely been a bit of a journey getting here, but I’m finally able to see the fruits of my labors.  For this I am definitely grateful, and am looking forward to what the future holds in this regard.

Another bit of reflecting that I’ve done is in regards to pictures.  Ahh pictures.  Looking through old pictures of Evelyn and skimming through various albums makes me smile.  She is growing up before our eyes!  I’ve also looked at pictures of me and Elisabeth over the years.  We, too, have changed.  I don’t really feel ‘old’ yet, but at the same time, I do.  Looking at the first few posts of this blog and reading about what was going on then is very interesting to see how life has evolved so rapidly in a matter of a few years.

Hopefully I’ll get some select pictures up in the new gallery portion of the blog to make it easier for others to see some of this growth, too.  It has only been a few years in the making.  Granted, that is an hour or two every 6 or 7 months.  With another little one on the way, I need to take the time now to sift through the hundreds of pictures I already have, and get rid of the blurry/lesser quality ones.  We’ll see what sort of pictures I end up uploading.

Similar to how I rarely post on this blog, or social media/etc., I also don’t post pictures all the time either.  Again, with the target audience being whomever is following me on social media, I tend to wonder if that audience is the best place for this.  I really should not worry so much, as they also choose to follow me.  If they don’t like what they see, they don’t have to look at it.  Which, in a nutshell is how I feel about the whole ordeal.  My facebook ‘wall’ or whatever of statuses/updates/shares/etc from my friends is severely filtered.  There are a few people that I like to know what is going on moreso than the rest.  For the rest, I generally have it filtered down to the ‘important’ stuff.  I can generally check to see what is going on every few days and be good to go.  Unlike many, I don’t need to check several times a day or else I ‘miss’ things.  Life is too short to try and keep up with so many people.  I tend to focus my social efforts and energy on my family and a few closer friends.  Other than that, meh.