The End of a Chapter

The small company where I have been working for the past year and a half or so (at first full-time, later part-time) had some traditions. Whenever someone had a birthday, there was a birthday cake (usually chocolate) and a card signed by everyone. On Fridays, a bunch of us would go out for lunch together at a local pub or restaurant (usually the Lions Pub near Coal Harbour). On Chinese New Year, we would all go out for Dim Sum at a local restaurant. There was a summer picnic, often at Kits or Jericho Beach, and during the holiday season, a nice Christmas buffet dinner downtown. I did make it for one non-annual tradition, an ‘offsite team-building event’, which was mainly an excuse for us all to indulge in go-cart racing (which was a blast!) The first day I started with the company, I experienced one of the traditions the company had for anyone leaving (which was fairly rare), a farewell lunch at a nearby restaurant. Following a certain circular pattern, today, at the company RIPE B2B, I attended a farewell lunch, only this time it was for me.

While there were some times when I found it painful not to have not enough to do at RIPE (and I have no idea why it was always spelled like an acronym), and it’s a shame that it didn’t pan out as the place where I would be able to spend the rest of my career, I’m still glad to have worked there. In retrospect, the familial scale of the company (about 12-15 people) in an old converted building in Gastown meant that I was able to work on some small projects while the rest of our life in a new city, coast and country began to sort itself out. The bus commute was short and easy, and I could frequently leave work and go straight to a concert, Gamelan rehearsal or lecture.

I got to meet and work with a lot of smart, friendly people. I hope they all do well, and the new project that they are working on ends up becoming a big success. Even if it’s not a huge smash-hit and they don’t get bought out by some bigger company, I hope most of all, that they keep having those little traditions.