Fork In The Road
One of many bits of wisdom from the immortal Yogi
Berra: "When you come to a fork in
the road, take it." I feel like
when we all get older we will look back at certain choices we make during our
lives and wonder "what if". I'm
not a 2nd guesser by nature so I don't mean look back with regret, just wonder
what things might have been like if you had taken door #2 instead of what's
behind curtain #3. For example, I know
that at one point my father had a choice between attending Duke Law School or
entering a doctoral program at LSU. He
chose LSU. Had he gone the other route,
he never would have met my mother and never would have had me (OK - maybe he
regrets that last part a little:-). Branelle
and I had one of those "fork in the road" moments earlier this year.
My wife was working as an aerospace engineer at NASA's
Johnson Space Center in Houston. She was
a project manager building flight hardware such as a new fire extinguisher for
the ISS. We were quite happy and not
really looking for anything to change when a large international agricultural
company recruited her for a position somewhat out of the blue. I say 'somewhat', because there was a small
connection that I won't get into but Nel wasn't looking to leave NASA. She asked me if I thought she should talk to
these people and I said sure - there's never anything wrong with listening. The position was out of her area of
expertise, but I was sure she could handle it.
What made it extremely interesting, however, was that it was located in
Soda Springs, Idaho.
If you've never heard of Soda Springs, you're not alone. It's a small town, and I mean SMALL, in the
middle of nowhere Southern Idaho. The
nearest town of any consequence is Pocatello, not exactly a metropolis, about
an hour away. There are about 3000
residents - keep in mind that our current "town" of Houston has about
6,000,000. When we initially started
researching the place we were both unnerved and intrigued at the same time. Branelle did a couple of phone interviews and
the next thing we know they want to bring us up for a site visit. It all happened kind of fast but we were
flying up to Idaho (into Salt Lake City about two hours away actually) later
that week - the end of January.
Right before we flew up to Idaho, Branelle was asked by NASA
folks if she would consider making a move from flight hardware to become a MER
Manager. I won't get into explaining the
MER here, just know that the position is an advancement in both salary and
exposure to real-time NASA ops. Nel had
never considered the MER (Mission Evaluation Room - in case it was bothering
you), but she was flattered and interested so she agreed. We didn't think too much of it and headed to
Soda Springs.
Soda Springs is a nice, quant little town. It was actually quite pretty, sitting in a
valley of small mountains in the high dessert.
There was a lot of snow as you could imagine and it was cold, but not
Minnesota cold. I dropped Nel off at the
plant one morning and while she interviewed I sat in a small coffee shop
listening to a bunch of local old-timers chat.
To be honest, it was really growing on me fast. A few hours later I met Nel and the plant
manager and a few others for lunch.
Everyone was extremely nice and they gave us a lot of insight into the
area. I could tell they liked Branelle,
and I was proven correct when she got a call from the corporate recruiter
offering her the job about 10 minutes after lunch ended. We told him to put it in writing and send it
to us. In truth, we were sort of trying
to stall.
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| Our rental on Main Street |
That afternoon we spent our time looking at homes with
Shannon Whitney, a local agent. The
biggest issue I had with moving here was finding a place to live. There were a total of 59 properties available
the day we looked, and quite frankly I wouldn't have really wanted any of
them. We talked about building, but in a
remote location like that it's both costly and slow. We decided that there was one property we
could work with if we wanted to make the move - It had a big home and acreage
with nice valley views and didn't cost that much so we could remodel and add
on. Shannon was extremely nice and
helpful and met us the next morning to look at a few more places before we
headed out.
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| This was the view from one of the contenders |
We decided to stay in Salt Lake City for a few days and do
some skiing. We hit Deer Valley and
Solitude and just kind of thought about things.
The company was really pushing Nel to take the job and we kept stalling because
we wanted to hear back from NASA about the MER position. Sure enough, NASA called and offered her the
gig. Now what?
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| Mulling over the decision, but the area is really starting to grow on me |
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| Nel picking out a vacation home |
When we got back to Houston we still couldn't decide. Branelle was stalling with both
companies. She had never told NASA about
the other offer and hadn't mentioned the MER promotion to anyone at the
agricultural company. She wasn't trying
to leverage either against each other, just making a choice. We asked a few close friends and family
members what they thought and got all kinds of mixed opinions. I remember video chatting with Nel's parents and
at the end of the conversation asking them what they thought. Mrs. C said she wouldn't do it and Mr. C said he
probably would. That's the way it
went with everyone. We told the Ag company to come
back with their best offer - again kind of just stalling. We even flipped a coin - not that we were
going to let it decide for us, just to see how we felt when it came up.
The money side was close, certainly not far enough apart to
make the difference. I could do what I
was doing anywhere so that didn't factor in.
I liked the idea of being "off the grid", but Branelle was a
bit less enthusiastic about it. It was
actually very stressful for her.
Ultimately, I think that the biggest negative factor for Nel was the
fear of leaving what she knows at NASA for an entirely different world. I'm pretty sure she would have done great in
a plant environment and I'm also pretty sure she would have ultimately loved
it, but I understand the trepidation. We
made the decision to turn down the Ag company and take the MER position. I think Nel thought it was over, but I knew
better. Shortly after rejecting the
offer, Nel got calls from the plant manager and others trying to change her
mind. They came up with about everything
they could and the relocation package and signing bonus were top notch.
I think I could have steered this one in either direction,
but in the end I felt that Branelle was just a little too uncomfortable leaving
NASA so we decided to stay. My thought
was that while I think we would have been very happy in Soda Springs, it was an
unknown and I know that we are happy here.
We're still in Houston and Nel is enjoying her new gig with the MER, but
I kind of wonder what things would be like if we had taken the other option at
the fork in the road. I imagine we would
have bought a big place on the outskirts of Soda Springs with a bunch of acres
and probably a vacation home in Jackson Hole a couple hours away. Who knows.
"Never look back" is something I like to say, but it's
interesting to imagine.
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