COUNTDOWN

Hay, 24 more days to go. We finally say goodbye to a chapter in our lives. The Intel Chapter. Intel was my first company. I joined it in 1996. My wife joined in 1997. We met in 1998, and by 2000, we were in front of a municipal judge exchanging vows.

I ended the Intel chapter of my life in 2002, when I joined another semiconductor company. I've been happy ever since, but there's something missing. Almost all of my close friends were from Intel. I missed them so much. It must be just me, but I never really developed friendships in my other company that are as closely bonded as the ones I had while I was in Intel.

And now my wife is going to take the jump as well. How do I even begin to warn her that life on the other side is definitely different? That the people are different? That they work differently as what we're used to? And what about her friends? I know my wife, she's the kind of person who can make friends easily, but will she have friends that are very much like the ones she has in Intel? I'm scared. I feel like a dad bringing his baby daughter to her first day in school.