Earlier this week, my calendar informed me that I’ve now been in Las Vegas for over a year now and then on Wednesday Timehop showed me a bunch of posts talking about my first day of work. So now I’ve had a full time job for a year in one of the most unique situations that I’ll ever likely be in. So what has that prompted? More introspection than usual.

The Good:

I’ve had an incredible variety of experiences that I doubt I would have gotten in any other environment. I’ve been given the chance to do many things that I never would have done otherwise, and have had the freedom to build some really great friendships and relationships. I doubt I will ever have another job with a commute as convenient as mine (unless I decide to work from home) and having a live, work, play office community is probably another one of those once in a life time experiences. I’ve sometimes seen the inner workings of Zappos, which is great to see how a company known for its culture and customer service functions. And I certainly can’t complain about the fringe benefits of the job, especially having a front row seat to an urban revitalization unlike any other. Along the way, I have learned a lot of things that I don’t want to do on a permanent basis. And a few things that I do want to have in my job whatever it may be.

The Bad:

Hard to talk about the bad because it is hard to describe (also more than a little inappropriate to talk about in a public forum), but I’d say the biggest thing is worrying that my experiences here won’t be applicable to whatever is next (assuming there is a next). Someone asked who of the seven of us is the most likely to be a lifer in Vegas. Surprisingly, it might be me… Even more surprisingly, I don’t hate that being the case.

The Ugly:

The realization that in one facet of my life, I have been extremely complacent. And complacency is something I don’t deal with particularly well. It was an unsettling realization to figure out that I haven’t had much professional development (although what sort of professional development can a self-styled Swiss Army Knife have?),

The End Result:

Unfortunately, it looks increasingly likely that at some point I’m going to have to answer that ever looming question, “What do you want to do with your life?” Fortunately, I’ve got some time to figure it out, am in an environment where I can test/try a lot of things out, and am having a blast in the process.