Space, especially in metropolitan cities like New York and San Francisco, is not cheap. It’s so expensive that most of the time when we do team “offsites” for multiple days, they end up actually not being off site from our usual offices, but instead “onsite” in a conference room at the office we had to reserve in advance. It’s kind of funny to me, but it is what it is.

Our team has been expanding slowly but surely. There were so many new faces to meet from all of our offices, in San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, Cologne, New York, and Austin. Although a lot of people dread the travel and dislike these big team events, at this company, I’ve really looked forward to them because I genuinely think that overall, the calibre of people we’ve hired has been far above average. I actually meet people here who are not only passionate about work and doing a good job as cliche as that sounds, but they have hobbies and interests outside of the office that make them interesting. So it’s nice to make these connections and know that your colleagues are multidimensional beings that are more than just workaholics. And I think I felt this when I first started, but I still feel this now almost two years in. This type of consistency is good.

And even outside of our team as I was running into other familiar faces at the office and meeting new ones, a lot of people seemed so receptive to the messages I’ve posted about my AFSP fundraiser and getting the word out about how pervasive depression and suicide are in society. A few people I’d never even met before introduced themselves to me and said they recognized me from my Slack post on the main team channel, and they were happy that I was supporting a cause like this and being so bold and open. It felt really nice to know that they not only read my post and remembered it, but even remembered me and my name and face.

Even two years later, it feels weird knowing I have good people as colleagues. It’s a happy thought.