El Paso in Houson

I've mentioned my friend Nate before. He is my good friend who moved to Hawaii to do his doctorate in nutrition. He is always saying that he needs me to export more optimism, so I feel that he really has kept this blog going even when I abandoned it for a few months. He and his wife Deb came down to Houston to visit Whitney and I when I was working for El Paso Oil last summer. This is a picture of Nate and I at a Cajun BBQ at Whit's family's house.
El Paso Oil was a great experience for me. It solidified in my mind that HR is definitely the career I want to pursue at this point in my life. I learned a lot from day one. In fact, "day one"is the topic of the day.

The first day on the job, you obviously want to make a good impression. Midway through, I thought I was doing pretty well. There were 2 other HR interns, Ashley and Clair, and we were all in the same boat. Rob, the recruiter, took us around to every single office on the 28th floor to introduce us to all the corporate HR employees. After about 10 people, I totally lost track of who was who and who did what.

Later in the day, we went to a Hurricane preparedness training. I was a little shocked that I was in hurricane country, growing up in the corn fields of the midwest and all. I sat down next to a woman and joked about my unfamiliarity with hurricanes. She laughed and joked back. I didn't recognize her so I introduced myself and stuck my hand out. Her eyes narrowed a tad and she simply said, "We met this morning."

Whoa. Hand retracted. Conversation over. We didn't really talk much the rest of the seminar. I found out a few days later that this woman was the VP of HR (Sue Ortenstone), and that I, the lowly intern, would have to work with her one-on-one in one of my projects.

I decided to forget our second meeting (I had obviously already forgotten our first meeting). I went to her office on the appointed day and we had a great conversation. She took a lot of time to get to know me and learn about BYU and my family.

It turns out that names are very important to Sue. She had started in "Big Oil" back when there were NO women in the industry. She graduated in petroleum engineering and worked on an off-shore rig where she had to work her tail of to gain the respect she should have equally received like the males. Through time, Sue took positions that led her to be CEO of an oil company in Austraila. She became a leader known for remembering names and details about people and leveraging her relationships to get ahead.

I still keep in touch with Sue even though I was just an intern and no long work at El Paso. I found out that she was a good lady- but a busy one. One that has a lot on her plate and has bad days just like all of us.

I think that part of optimism is looking past the negative experiences we have with people. One bad encounter sometimes ruins relationships, jobs, families, etc. At times I think that we just have to pretend it didn't happen. Now that may seem like I'm comparing optimism to ignorance or stupidity. Its not that at all. It's forgiveness. It's gratitude. Part of enjoying life to the fullest is choosing what you want to dwell on. I choose the good. I choose the best.

Optimism exported.
Joe Hardie