As many of my billions of loyal followers are aware, I have recently moved to Salt Lake City, Utah! There were quite a few motives for this recent move, but the biggest one is quite well summarized by a song
“get a haircut” by George Thorogood. I heard it about a year ago while watching the Orica-Scott backstage TDF videos, and thought it was hilarious. One line in the song is even “get it together like your big brother bob” – which is funny because my big brother does “have it together”. I’m currently at phase two of the song, where I am trying that 9-5 scene… Maybe someday me and my rock and roll band will “hit the big time” and I’ll be “10 times richer than my big brother bob” – but I’m not going to hold my breath.
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The move started a few months ago in June. After Pacific Crest, which my girlfriend Emily and I road tripped up to from Colorado (a solid 19 hours each way…), she realized that she didn’t want to go to PA school. The applications for PA school, as some of you may know, require more than enough personal information, essays about why you want to be a PA, and generally speaking, are not standardized. This means that every single school you want to apply for, you must specifically tell them why you want to go there. Then if selected, you have to go out there and interview with them, and sell them your soul. If you think that this application process sounds pretty stressful, you’re right. Now imagine getting accepted, then having to commit the next few years of your life to actually becoming a PA… Emily realized that she was more interested in actually doing science with her degree (Biological sciences), than becoming a PA and talking to random people about their mysterious bodily growths on a daily basis. She applied for a job at the SMRTL drug testing lab at the U of U, and was accepted the next week. She committed to starting in August, and before we knew it I was faced with possibly the easiest decision I’d ever have to make: Do I go or do I not go.
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| Big Cottonwood With Emily |
This past year has been pretty rough for me, and I’ll probably delve into more of that in future blogs depending on my mood when writing. But to summarize my once “friendly roommate”, let’s call him Patrice, decided that I was burdening him by him letting me live in his spare bedroom and pay him monthly rent, and that I didn’t deserve to be treated like a typical human since my name wasn’t on the lease. I was verbally abused on a regular basis, and eventually I left one weekend when he was visiting his girlfriend in Vail. I had contemplated moving out several times before then, but never really pulled the trigger on it until I came home that weekend and he had a friend staying in his bedroom that he didn’t warn me about, while he was out of town. I almost called the cops on the person thinking they had broken before I realized they were his guest. Trust me, I’d love to be making this up.
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| @ The Pool. 50m outdoor, 25yd indoor |
The next month, I was welcomed in by a great retired air traffic controller and his wife who works as a nurse. They allowed me to stay in their basement for the month, and I felt safe again. Patrice didn’t know where I lived, and I was happily out of a terrible living situation. I had planned on moving in with a Co-worker, Dillan, and a few guys from the CSU Triathlon team in May. We began our lease on May 1st, and the house ended up being a giant train wreck. There were hella bugs everywhere in the basement, and with everyone out of town for the summer at internships, etc. I was the only one living there for a lot of the summer. The yard, which we were told would be cleaned and landscaped for us, was a giant weed fest, and we weren’t even given a lawn mower (LOL). Oh yeah, and it didn’t come with a washer and a dryer. These landlords were CLASSY…
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My job was barely paying me enough to keep me afloat. While getting discounts on shoes is sweet, not being financially stable is less sweet. I began trying to court a sponsor to help with my triathlon/financial endeavors, but nothing seemed to bite. Maybe I just didn’t have it as far as they were concerned. After all, I haven’t really had any great results that say “Wow that kids gonna be a world champ someday”. One of my main points of pride is on working hard and doing things the right way, but maybe this just wasn’t going to be and I wouldn’t be able to make it in triathlon. I realized that my most valuable asset was not my triathlon skills or social media abilities, but my college degree. I value risking it all for doing something you love, but my bank account was approaching the point of no return if I didn’t get it together and make a big change. Sitting around and waiting for someone to bankroll me to get to the races wasn’t working, and working part time paid me enough to train, but not enough to actually go somewhere and race!
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| The view from directly outside our apartment. 5 minute ride straight to the mountains... |
Emily and I decided that long distance wasn’t really our cup of tea. There wasn’t really a point of me staying at my job that I was barely surviving at, when I could get another job that paid the same in Salt Lake City as a worst case scenario. We found a sweet little apartment in the Millcreek area, and have settled in nicely. I began applying for jobs and exercising full time (spoiler alert: my last race of the season ended up getting cancelled). It was nice finally getting to exercise as much as humanly possible, and knowing that there would eventually be a light at the tunnel.
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| Big Cottonwood, again |
Before we had moved, I began applying for jobs in Salt Lake City, and found that there were significantly more companies willing to look at my resume than in Fort Collins. Despite several distinctions that I would consider significant on my diploma, I felt like I was never truly given a chance to legitimately use my degree in Fort Collins. Most of the jobs required you to start with a base of an amusing 30k, then “work your way up the system”. I didn’t get a college degree in Supply Chain Management to work in sales. And I honestly hate sales anyways… So despite a few interviews for that role out in Salt Lake, I kept looking. In Salt Lake my resume was valued a lot more, and I found myself being responded to by a lot more employers. My bank account was teetering on the brink of extinction, when I finally got an offer from a real Supply Chain Company out of West Valley City, and they gave me one day to respond... This didn't seem fair to me, but I was getting desperate for something in real supply chain! It seemed like an OKAY enough fit, the commute wasn't great, but they had a few coffee machines on site, flexible hours, and unlimited PTO with a decent 401k match. I’d probably take it if I didn’t find a better offer!
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| You should see what it looks like inside |
The next day I got a better offer from my current employer, O.C. Tanner. The company has been around for longer than you and me combined, and the people here are passionate about what they do. The company produces employee rewards, and among other things, we made the medals for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics. We have an insane 401k match, regular profit sharing (which means we actually turn a profit), and a great company culture. There is a casual dress code, gym on site, my manager is awesome, and most of all, they seemed really happy to have me here. The commute is literally 5 minutes from my house. A lot of you might be saying “well I thought you weren’t about money”. Well, I am a little bit about money…. In 25 years I don’t want my kids to say “dad, why can’t I go to college X” – and I want my response to be “because your essay sucked”, not “we couldn’t afford it”.
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| Unlimited coffee too! |
I enjoy life here in Salt Lake City. The pool opens at 5am, leaving plenty of time to get a 10k set in before getting to work at 8am, we have an on site gym, an amazing trail system less than 10 minutes from our apartment, and without a doubt the safest cycling I have ever experienced! The roads are beautiful, the cost of living is cheap, the weather is relatively predictable, and my roommate doesn’t hate me. If you had told me about a year ago that this is where I’d be I’d tell you you’re nuts, but isn’t that how it always works? I’ve got my haircut and real job now, but life is a lot better than it was before, and I’m glad I did.
With all of this said, I'd like to thank the people who have helped me out along the way on this journey. My parents, siblings, Emily, my imaginary friends that I talk to when I'm bored, my bff Conrad, and coach Elliot Bassett (i'll talk more about him in a future blog, but he's a lot better than your coach according to me).
Thanks,
Ernie
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Ernie Mantell
Purchasing Analyst - Indirect Spend and MRO
1930 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115
office 801.4XXXXXXX (you're crazy if you think you're getting that number)
