Career Mobility

Friday marked my final day as a Merrill employee. Monday, I, along with 1200+ former Merrill-ites, will join the ranks of DTI Global. Mixed emotions. The Merrill years were rich, professionally speaking, and Merrill was far beyond accommodating, following a certain nasty little bicycle accident. DTI is a proven winner, formerly a tenacious competitor, and now my mates and I look forward to a profitable cross pollination of skills, knowledge, talent and expertise. On what should have been a day focused on tasks related to this career transition, however, my lovely and heroic wife, Alice, and I took a wee road trip.

We traveled to the Norristown, PA branch of Ride-Away, where we picked up our 2010 Braun-Chrysler hybrid Town & Country minivan. For the past six years, I’ve been able to get around in our T&C thanks to its handy ramp and a system that locks my wheel chair safely in place. I would ride shotgun, and someone else drove, usually my lovely and heroic wife, Alice. Three weeks ago, the T&C was taken away to undergo a few significant enhancements. A few cleverly placed, handy hand-controls, super easy power steering, and a six-way articulating driver’s seat would allow me to climb behind the wheel and drive the T&C myself. The purpose of our trip to PA was for Ride-Away’s technicians to make precise adjustments to these and a few other mechanisms, so that the van would “fit” me like a glove. Well, maybe like a suit. Well, maybe like a barrel and suspenders. Anyway, the adjustments were made (no Spreewells). I was able, as we say in the spinal cord injury business, to “transfer” (picture heave or lurch) from my wheel chair into the T&C’s real front driver’s seat, and drive the two and a half hours home – in just three hours.

From the sunny suburban streets of Norristown, over the rolling hills of southeastern PA and northeastern MD, down I-95 from Perryville to Baltimore, through the 895 Charm City Harbor Tunnel Throughway, and down the 295 Balt.-Wash. Parkway to Laurel (or “La-Rule”, as my GPS lady likes to say), like one little fishy in a vast school, we navigated fast and heavy traffic back home.

Lots of change. New employer. New mobility. Both presenting a strange blend of uncertainty and opportunity. Excitement and anxiousness. I am prone to worry. It’s no small comfort that God provides peace that passes understanding, wisely, and powerfully governing and preserving us as we trade familiar and comfortable circumstances for new ones. Onward.

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