_special day
This is a special day. My little girl turns 20, twenty, TWENTY, t-w-e-n-t-y, the BIG 2-0. Where did the time go?
If you ever wondered what the phrase “Bitter Sweet” meant, this is it. On the one hand, I am so proud of my daughter and on the other hand, Lauren turning 20 has had a profound impact on me. Even as I type this Blog and look for the words to tell her how important she is to her Mom and I, I find my hands have a slight shake…my prose are stuck in my head, though words are boundless when it comes to Lauren. We don’t want her to grow up. We’d like our little girl back, thank you very much. We know that that isn’t going to happen. Bitter sweet…
Lauren and lil' bro' Jackson
This Blog exists to force me to talk with one voice to customers, partners, employees, press and anyone else who follows Madbak and used to follow TitanTV. I believe finding that one voice helps keep my company on track. So, why then would there be a Blog about Lauren Perry, now aged 20, now a nursing student at the University of Iowa? Because she deserves it.
Lauren’s life spans the era technology startups. When people think of software, technology or Internet companies, they think of jeans, t-shirts, free pop and either extreme success or crash-and-burn. It is a far different world than the world her Grandfather knew at Rockwell. Where her Mom knew stability growing up, Lauren grew up in the era of PowerPoint pitches, business plans and defending projected EBITDA. I got my first job in the tech industry about a month before Lauren was born. She never knew the life portrayed on Leave it to Beaver, i.e. Hugh Beaumont and Barbara Billingsley.
So as I sit here today with so many words to say, yet those words are a jumbled mess stuck in my head, I am reminded of all those nights on the road, the late night greaseboard marathons, the stress of figuring out how to make payroll, the struggling to ‘hit the number,’ the nearly 2 million miles on United, the hundreds of lonely nights in hotels, the sweet feeling of a plan coming together, I am reminded of the place Lauren held in all that. She was my inspiration. Knowing she was at home making her Mom laugh, keeping her little brother in line and being the thorn in the side of her big sister, somehow kept me going.
Happy 20th Birthday, Lauren.
Love, Dad
