Matt Harding is one of my new heroes. Software engineer who decided to quit and travel the world instead. Had a weird idea and is now getting paid by Stride gum to travel the world.



Here's his website in case you're curious.

Reminds me a little of Aron Ralston who is now famous for being forced to cut off his own arm after he decided to go hiking without telling anyone where he was or when he'd be back and got lodged literally Between a Rock and a Hard Place. (Not smart, but maybe the fact that he also quit his engineering job at Intel to do the things he really loved was.)

CSC External IBM Site

Although I'll be posting a lot on my blog while I'm in Tanzania, I will also be posting on the external Corporate Services Corps IBM site, along with my teammates. The first three teams have just left for their countries, so there will be some interesting stuff going up there in the next few days.

Definitely bookmark this site: https://www.adtech.internet.ibm.com/corporateservicecorps/

Time Travel

There are 13 days left until my trip to Glacier & 46 days left until Tanzania. How the heck is it July 6th already? Before I head off to Tanzania, I still have a long list of to-dos, some of which are finish several articles, read five books and take about that many classes, learn Swahili, figure out what to bring, transition fully into my new position at work, figure out who will back me up when, finish off the Intern/Co-op Mentor Program, figure out who will mow my lawn and water my plants, and finish all of my normal work on-time. It's going to be a rough couple of months, but totally and completely worth it.

This weekend, my parents came to visit (which was fun) and we ended up going to Lanesboro, MN to hike on the Root River Trail. Lanesboro is a really cute town with an olde time downtown and lots to do (biking, canoeing, tubing, etc). Nice place to get away from la vida loca.

The weekend before that was my grandparents' 50th anniversary celebration. Congratulations, Grandma & Grandpa!! It was really nice to see everyone, especially my aunt, uncle, and cousins from New York who we hardly ever get to see.



There were some sad things to face. My 16-year-old cousin got a 15-year-old pregnant and they have an 8-month-old. It is the cutest baby ever, but her parents fight, my cousin is playing baseball this summer instead of supporting his family, and though she gets a lot of love and attention from the rest of the family, she deserves a better immediate family situation. Best of luck to my cousin, who I'm sure will do what's best for the baby in the long run.