I remember the first time I saw those simple words living on the internet as a result of my coding skills. Not that it required much skills at that point, but it was a strangely powerful feeling to be able to open a text editor and within a few keystrokes you could suddenly present something online for the world to see.
That was many years ago in a classroom at American River College, and these days “Hello world” serves as a default first post on WordPress installs and usually the first thing we delete before we start building our client sites.
Now finally having invested real time, energy, and effort into displaying our full portfolio I am at a blank notes doc, feeling very similar to how I did when I sat nervously in that computer lab. We’ve been doing this for years, and even before GDM was a legit company with state and federal docs (and taxes) to prove it I let our own site fall to the back burner.
I always had the intention to finish this site, and write this post, and for it to be a heroic moment!
Instead I feel a strange sense of tranquility.
I expected to be nervous, I expected to be funnier, I expected to be bolder, I expected something different. But right now I feel tremendous peace with subtle undertones of pride. It’s been a long journey to get to this point, and while it is the first post to see the internet it’s coming after years of change, growth, and some dark patches sprinkled along the way.
So if you’ve stuck with me to read this post up until this point, I thank you. I write this to you, as much as I write it to myself. Keep going, keep listening to that nagging voice that keeps calling you to go further. That feeling in your soul that you have more to reach for you just need to focus on the next step in front of you.
Eventually, you’ll reach your own personal mountain top and get to scream into the expanse, for now I’m at my own peak of the moment with a smile on my face and my thoughtful “hello world” spoken confidently into the void.
Tomorrow I’ll be back, putting one foot in front of the next, happily walking towards the next mountain (or my mountain-like todo list.)
Cheers,
Also a huge thank you to my family and extended tribe of people around me. That includes the GDM team, my friends, and those past and present who have helped shape me into the human I am today. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
– Todd “Cope” Bailey
