Erik 2015

The sun is shining. It’s a little warm for this time of year but people are enjoying themselves, are giddy with excitement for the New Year and to see what it will bring for them. I had a great 2015 and I’m excited to see what 2016 will hold for me but it’s a little bittersweet leaving 2015 in the past.

I spent most of my time this year, continuing at my job and Leads On Demand, an internet marketing firm. This year was a bit of a transition year for the company as the previous owners sold the company to new ownership and we also changed company systems. Within that transition though, production sky-rocked and more help was brought into my department, Quality Control.

More responsibility was placed upon my shoulders as I started to work in other aspects of the company and I also trained and managed the new employee that was brought into the Quality department. Because of this, I believe I have grown a great deal from where I was last year at this point.

While working, I volunteered again with the Orlando Predators and that was challenging and exciting! There was new ownership this year and the team was back at the Amway Center. I was also given more responsibility on gamedays as I was in charge of all of the gameday interns, making sure all of the promotions went smoothly, including getting crowd participation and assuring that everything was setup properly before the game. There were a lot of times were I had to change things on the fly based on different things that happened, but it really helped me as I learned how to always be prepared and be ready to fix something at a moment’s notice.

In the latter half of the season, I started going to team practices and assisting there and that was awesome! It was very interesting and exciting to be working on this side of the team! I learned more about everything that goes on in the preparation for games such as filming practices, setting up practices, getting player’s equipment prepared and breaking down film. This was great for me as I wanted to learn more about this side of football as I want to work for an NFL team doing this kind of work!

This year I took another trip to New York City to hang out with Mom and Annika and one of her friends, Carolyn, who were attending their ballet camp. I was only there for a week but it was a lot of fun because Mom and I went to see a lot of the city that we hadn’t seen before like parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan. For the first couple days though we had to get some work done and it was a massive struggle trying to find a place in New York that has both outlets and really good internet! Gone are the days of “internet” coffee houses in NYC!

Lots of times we would find a place that has outlets, but no internet. Other times we would find a place that had internet but no outlets. There were even some places like the Barnes & Noble in Union Square, where you could see that they actually covered up the outlets as they didn’t want people to stay there too long! Eventually though, we ended up working at the New York Public Library, which was nice but you couldn’t bring water or anything to drink into the work station. During the trip, Mom and I took a ferry tour around the Statue of Liberty and rode bikes in Manhattan and Brooklyn which was a lot of fun!

Before the trip to New York though, Mom, Margo, Benj and I went on a trip to Las Vegas and Arizona. While we were in Las Vegas, we stayed with my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Kathy's house which was awesome and they showed us all of the sights in Las Vegas like the strip, old Las Vegas, hiking trails and the Hoover Dam. It was very interesting to be in a completely different climate than Florida because there is a ton of humidity in Florida and people sweat a lot and can feel like they are being boiled in 90 degree weather. In Las Vegas and Arizona though, there is no humidity and the temperature was roughly 114 degrees for the whole time we were there! The difference is that instead of feeling boiled, you feel like you’re being cooked in an oven and you don’t sweat at all. While in Las Vegas and Arizona, we visited the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon and those two sites were amazing to see! We took a tour of the Hoover Dam and it was amazing to see how people were able to construct this massive structure in the middle of a river, the scorching heat and using the tools that they had in 1930. It was very impressive to walk in the Dam and around it to see how much thought, work and effort went into the creation of this dam.

The Grand Canyon was just as cool and was even more amazing! It took us a few hours to get there from Las Vegas and the drive to get there though was was also exciting in it's own way even though it was mainly flat surface, straight roads and desert scenery. It was a complete departure from the scenery I’m used to. Once we got to the Grand Canyon, it was amazing! The canyon was huge and it was amazing to see all of the different rock formations that had been carved over the years from the Colorado River. We took a lot of pictures at the Canyon but I was a bit nervous though because for such a dangerous place, there were not a lot of railings or protection from falling off the edge. There were many people who would sit, or stand right on the edge of the Canyon and look down at the massive drop and take pictures. Needless to say, that made Mom, Margo, Benj and I a bit nervous! I was so happy that we got to visit the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam as those have been places I’ve wanted to visit for a while and I’m happy I got to visit them with my family!

I also went on a trip to Wisconsin with Dad to watch the Green Bay Packers play the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field and visit family. This trip was a lot of fun because I got to spend time with Dad, see a Packer game at Lambeau Field and visit family. I hadn’t been there since the last time I went to Wisconsin, which was in 2010. It was very rainy when we were up there but it was ok because it wasn’t too cold as it was only around 40-50 degrees, which was very warm for Wisconsin that time of year. When Dad and I went to the game, it had been raining the whole day and it continued raining throughout the game so I was a little worried we might get soaked but my uncle gave us some rain ponchos and rain pants and those worked perfectly!

By the end of the game, we were mostly dry. The game was a lot of fun to watch as all of the scoring plays, the interception by Sam Shields and a lot of other plays all happened in the end zone we were sitting in. The Packers thrashed the Cowboys pretty well and it was awesome interacting with other Packer fans, as well as some Cowboy fans who were good sports about losing the game!We also took a tour of Lambeau Field and that was a ton of fun as we got to walk out on the field, go in private suites, cool club areas and see all of the improvements that have been made to the stadium.

The best part was walking out on to the field, as we got to walk through the tunnel where the players walk and where so many other great coaches and players have walked and they pumped in crowd noise and music to make you feel like it was gameday. That was a pretty cool moment!

This year was a lot of fun and I’m very excited to see what 2016 will hold for me! Hopefully it will be just as good as or better than 2015!

Stay caught up with me at my blog Starting At The 17.