How this came about...
I've always been fascinated with Antarctica, starting in 6th grade when I spoke to people on the continent via ham radio. Since then, I've read lots of Antarctic history and adventure, followed a lot of the science going on there, and had many more chances to talk to people there with ham radio. When I was in the Navy, and they were doing all the support down there, I even tried to get assigned to Antarctica with no luck.
So how did I get this chance to go there now? With a lot of luck and serendipity, but mostly because of two good friends of mine, Brad Keiser and Adrienne Custode. I'll get to them in a bit, but first a little background. And to the people who've heard this story before, please bear with me...
I had been working at a place called Ball Aerospace for many years when I just became toast. The work wasn't engaging anymore, the management wasn't supportive, and it was time for me to move on. But what to do? I decided to take a year off to travel, ski, hike, reconnect with friends, and generally decompress. But as soon as I made that decision, some friends that work at a place called the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) asked me to apply for a job opening there so that I could help them with a mission they were working on. They are longtime friends and colleagues, and we'd worked on many missions together in the past at Ball, so I said yes. I interviewed for the job and was hired. Unfortunately, after spending 6 months there, it became apparent that LASP and I weren't a good fit for each other, and I left to pursue my original plan to take a year off. One of the good things about LASP though, was that I got to work with my friends from Ball again, and I got to meet and work with some really amazing new people-super friendly and super smart.
One of those people was Brad. About a month and a half into my year long "sabbatical", I get a call late at night from Brad. What the heck? He lives in the mountains west of Boulder, so I thought maybe he slid off the road and wanted me to help pull him out of a ditch or something. Nope, he excitedly asked if I wanted to go to Antarctica. One of the LASP scientists that he's friends with, and who does a lot of work in Antarctica, had sent him a job posting for a systems administrator postion at Palmer Station. He couldn't go because of his workload at LASP (sorry!), as well as watching out for his mom who'd just moved to Boulder and was still settling in. So he asked, "interested?" Of course I was! I reminded him that I had a 3'x4' map of Antarctica above my desk at LASP and he laughed and said "of course you are!" So he sent me the job post and I applied for it. And then promptly forgot about it.
During that first month and half of my year off, I spent a lot of time visiting with friends who wanted to know what the heck I was doing taking a year off at my age. The good thing was that every single person who heard about it was supportive-so I knew I was on the right track. One of them was my friend Adrienne, who I hadn't seen in many many months, who I had dinner with to explain my plans. During dinner, I offhandedly mentioned that I had applied for a job in Antarctica but hadn't heard anything back, and she asked where. "Palmer Station" I told her. And she said "I went to school with the Palmer Station manager, and we're still great friends." Right there at dinner she texted him and we traded contact info. The next day he put me in contact with with the IT manager of Palmer Station, we did a long phone interview, some follow-up calls, and then they offered me the position.
So yeah, I'm headed to Antarctica...
So how did I get this chance to go there now? With a lot of luck and serendipity, but mostly because of two good friends of mine, Brad Keiser and Adrienne Custode. I'll get to them in a bit, but first a little background. And to the people who've heard this story before, please bear with me...
I had been working at a place called Ball Aerospace for many years when I just became toast. The work wasn't engaging anymore, the management wasn't supportive, and it was time for me to move on. But what to do? I decided to take a year off to travel, ski, hike, reconnect with friends, and generally decompress. But as soon as I made that decision, some friends that work at a place called the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) asked me to apply for a job opening there so that I could help them with a mission they were working on. They are longtime friends and colleagues, and we'd worked on many missions together in the past at Ball, so I said yes. I interviewed for the job and was hired. Unfortunately, after spending 6 months there, it became apparent that LASP and I weren't a good fit for each other, and I left to pursue my original plan to take a year off. One of the good things about LASP though, was that I got to work with my friends from Ball again, and I got to meet and work with some really amazing new people-super friendly and super smart.
One of those people was Brad. About a month and a half into my year long "sabbatical", I get a call late at night from Brad. What the heck? He lives in the mountains west of Boulder, so I thought maybe he slid off the road and wanted me to help pull him out of a ditch or something. Nope, he excitedly asked if I wanted to go to Antarctica. One of the LASP scientists that he's friends with, and who does a lot of work in Antarctica, had sent him a job posting for a systems administrator postion at Palmer Station. He couldn't go because of his workload at LASP (sorry!), as well as watching out for his mom who'd just moved to Boulder and was still settling in. So he asked, "interested?" Of course I was! I reminded him that I had a 3'x4' map of Antarctica above my desk at LASP and he laughed and said "of course you are!" So he sent me the job post and I applied for it. And then promptly forgot about it.
During that first month and half of my year off, I spent a lot of time visiting with friends who wanted to know what the heck I was doing taking a year off at my age. The good thing was that every single person who heard about it was supportive-so I knew I was on the right track. One of them was my friend Adrienne, who I hadn't seen in many many months, who I had dinner with to explain my plans. During dinner, I offhandedly mentioned that I had applied for a job in Antarctica but hadn't heard anything back, and she asked where. "Palmer Station" I told her. And she said "I went to school with the Palmer Station manager, and we're still great friends." Right there at dinner she texted him and we traded contact info. The next day he put me in contact with with the IT manager of Palmer Station, we did a long phone interview, some follow-up calls, and then they offered me the position.So yeah, I'm headed to Antarctica...
