The Final Frontier...

Endings and Beginnings…

To my Beloved Family and Friends,

I am tagging you in this note because I want you all to know what is going on in my life. Specifically, I wanted to share some plans I have for 2010.

First; today is Thanksgiving Day. I would like to take a moment to write a thank you to all of you. I hope you know that it is not just one day that I think about how amazing all my Family and Friends are. I wish it was somehow possible to convey the immense amount of appreciation and gratitude I have for the experiences we have shared with one another. Whether we interact daily or once in a while these relationships are what define me. Thank you! Thank you so much. There are so many more ways in which I would like to give thanks to all of you and since it would require me writing a tome, I will simply say for now, that I am thankful for all the wonderful ways in which you have contributed and enriched my life.

I want to warn you that this letter may be over sentimental at times (I am listening to Holiday music as I write this) but that’s something that you all know is a hallmark of mine.

All right, deep breath, here I go…

…6.30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Thursday, 31 December 2009 I will be ending a 6 year journey at the Apple Store and consequently with Apple, Inc.

You are probably wide eyed or slack jawed right now…or confused, or starting to formulate some questions. It is to be hoped that this will clear up the matter.

Lets begin with a little bit about me that some of you guys may not have known. My primary love is Art & Literature. More specifically I like to write poetry, short stories and I’ve been working on a novel. I’m not saying that I am at all brilliant at writing; it is just what I like doing the most. Furthermore there is photography and drawing, which I will admit to a small amount of brilliance.

An equally long explanation will go into why I didn’t complete a university education the first time around after High School but sufficed to say 6 years ago, when I started out as a part time Mac Specialist at the Apple Store, my intention was to go back to school and earn at least a four year degree.

Well, that didn’t happened. Instead I quickly became an Assistant Manager and embarked on a magnificent course with a bright and exciting future in retail. This is the part where I thank Charlie Shaughnessy and Tom Summers. Mainly Charlie because he was the Store Manager at the time and really inspired me to be a great manager and even more, become a well known and stand out representative of Apple.

My Hire date (officially) was 10 February 2004 but the people that opened the store, (of which there are very few left) considered me an employee in training from the day I stepped foot in that store as one of her first customers.

I can go on by telling stories of how those were the days but I’ll simply honour those days by saying, Those were the days.

Things have been great, Apple is growing at a phenomenal pace and it was neat to be part of a company where everyone really feels like they are doing something to achieve that growth. As big as Apple has gotten on the retail side, they are trying their hardest to maintain that experience. So why am I leaving Apple Retail, even if my primary passion is in writing and photography? Why can’t I stay with this awesome company and go to college at the same time?

About a year ago, I made a decision that is again, a very long and complicated explanation but to sum it up for you, I decided that I did want that college education that I didn’t have time for or want before. I left management at Apple and have been doing classes online and working full time as a Lead Specialist. It has been difficult but manageable. You give up practically all your social life and chances to go out with friends and family when you join retail but imagine college and retail… How’s that going?

Very well but I find my progress to be slow. I’m not worried though, its very rewarding. For any of you that are wondering whether or not college or university is going to pay off, well I can’t answer that. What I can say is being in an environment where you are learning new things is rewarding. If you aren’t feeling that way, than you are probably taking the wrong courses and should stop and rethink what you are studying.

In January I will not be returning to school either. Here’s where the part about sharing my plans for 2010 comes into play. I made the decision to leave Apple and School (school temporarily) because an opportunity came up that I couldn’t pass up.

Have any of you heard of the Way of St. James or Camino de Santiago de Compostela? Well, they are both the same thing. Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage that has existed for over a thousand years. It begins at your front door and ends in Spain at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where it is said, the bones of St. James lay in rest. Here is a link to a decent wikipedia article on the subject:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

Though I am not religious the stories of this pilgrimage have captured my imagination. A close group of friends went on a two month pilgrimage to Santiago that started in the Pyrenees. When they came back there was something really special about their countenance, the way they spoke and the way they behaved that really appealed to my sensibilities. Furthermore, it sounded like the kind of adventure one ought to experience if they are able to!

I was already contemplating doing something like this, originally I was planning to take a six month sabbatical and hit the open road across America and into the Canada, then back east across our Northern neighbor and down the coast to my home. That’s when my friend’s came home and started sharing the most extraordinary stories about their two month pilgrimage.

The stories were of adventure but not what you would expect when you hear that word. Nothing terribly extraordinary happened to them, except that they were somehow transformed by simply getting up and walking 21 kilometers or so every day and meeting and interacting with other pilgrims, by walking through parts of Europe that people never see unless they walk, or experiencing the delights of villages that have existed for over a thousand years. No amount of description is ample because I can’t convey something that I haven’t experienced yet…but I will.

In March 2010 I will depart by aeroplane to the old world and begin my walk or pilgrimage in the city of Rome. From there I will walk north through Switzerland, into France to Paris. By this time it will be May and around my Birthday. From Paris I will go south through the French countryside and into Spain. Traveling then, along the northern coast through Bilbao and Santander and then finally to Santiago de Compotela where the pilgrimage will be complete. Then I’ll walk or bike or whatever to the city of Finistere (meaning the end of the world) where one looks across the ocean back at the New World. If I have time left over I’ll probably head to Greece for a bit. Then back to Rome or Paris and home.

A six month adventure walking about in Europe!

If any one of you would like to come along for any part of the Journey or plan on being in Europe between March and August, please let me know, because I will have a Euro-rail pass and can pause my journey to meet up at any point. Also, it would be very lovely if any of my friends or family would like to meet up in Paris in May to help me celebrate my 32nd year on this marvelous planet.

So that’s the news. I think its very exciting and I hope you’ll send me lots of good wishes and think of me while I’m there.

For those of you into this, here are some really neat coincidences that happened to coincide with this trip.

I started my journey at Apple on a New Moon and it ends on a Full Moon. Whether you are mystical or not, the allegorical symbolism of this is quite fitting. I do feel like I am completing a journey with Apple, or leaving at a time where I don’t feel like there’s work that I have to do. On a personal level I feel whole and satisfied with my experience there.

For my WTMI friends and those of you who know of my obsession with Glenn Gould there is a neat coincidence there also. Here I must thank Lyn Farmer for noticing that my dress preference was similar to that of Gould’s and for handing me my first compact disc of Gould’s recordings, The Goldberg Variations 1982 version.

Glenn Gould, the greatest pianist ever to live, (this is not an invitation for an argument I know that isn’t a statement that everyone agrees with) was obsessed with Johann Sebastian Bach. There’s a great deal of mathematical precision and meaning in the works of Bach, and Glenn Gould complimented this with his interpretations of Bach’s music. The Goldberg Variations is a very meaningful piece to me. Gould recorded it twice and many people have written long and interesting papers on the matter but I’ll say this about it. There are 32 parts to the work starting and ending with the same Aria.

The walk I’m making is roughly 3200 km, and its my 32nd Jubilee. To me this is very special because I think as humans we look for these kinds of coincidences or correlations and patterns in what is otherwise meaningless.

Maybe every 100 km I’ll honour a year of my life and reflect on it and the experiences I had those years (as much as I can remember) and how they will shape the journeys ahead.

Well, thank you for reading this. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and I hope to hear your thoughts and feelings about my news. I welcome any questions or concerns you have so please address them any way you choose fit.

With the greatest feelings of affection and love,
I am yours faithfully.

Sohail Fazluddin