I've had a lot of jobs over the years, because I recognized early on that I learned better from experience than from schooling. Because of this, I took a lot of jobs and left a lot of jobs when I felt I'd learned what I could from them. I've worked as, in no particular order:
a Construction Contractor, a Barista, an IT Professional, an actual High School Drama Teacher, an Audio Engineer for both Television and Radio, a Retail Supervisor or Manager several times over, a Professional Baseball Mascot, a Telemarketer, a Stage and Film Actor, a WoW Game Master, a Prosthetics Support Specialist, a Home Improvement Professional, a Director of Operations for a Professional Baseball Team, a Cashier, a Mr. Trash, a Theme Park Performer, a Truck Loader, a Published Author of textbooks and magazine articles, a Hospitality Worker and a few others that escape recall at this moment.
I mention all this because there are all kinds of jobs, and all kinds of workplaces, and what's right for one isn't necessarily right for another, and for many workplaces, you never know if it's going to be a good fit between employee and employer until you get there. Before I came to Star Citizen, as a devout backer, I thought I knew everything I needed to about working for Star Citizen.
And I've never been more wrong in my life.
This is so much better than I expected.
This is a place for gamers, and when I say that, I mean people that come READY TO PLAY. The work is hard, the hours are long, and the rewards... well, the rewards are history in the making.
The people that are here are as dedicated as any I've met on any job I've had. They come in early and stay late, and they work under the light of a community that can be both supportive and demanding in equal measure. I've seen every emotion in the human specturm from my fellow employees in the time I've been here, because for many, this isn't just a job: you build a very real attachment to the thing. It resonates deeply when people are pleased with what they're seeing, as much as it does when they do not. This collective endeavor to do the thing they say can't be done, that's never been done, and then to do it in a form and manner that's scares the industry must scare the crap out of some people. It makes sense that it would.
But courage isn't the absence of fear, it's the ability to let that fear inform your actions and proceed intelligently anyway.
Ands that's what I see people doing here each and every day. It's hard work building the impossible, and it's not for everyone. People will come and people will go because of this. Speaking only for myself, this place quickly became a home. My co-workers were dedicated, my superiors easily approachable, and it's a rare day that some aspect of this amazing development doesn't surprise or astonish me. I feel like I wandered in the desert for so many years, looking for my place in things, and I don't feel that way anymore.
This is the place where I belong.
With Chris and Sandi and Ben and Alexis and Thomas and Toast (I still can't call him Steven) and everyone else that comes in each day to make the impossible possible. It's okay to be afraid, but it's even better to have the courage to succeed as well. And to those of you that do:
I'll see you in the 'Verse.
