Steve’s Australian Adventure with IBM’s Corporate Service Corp — I’m Off

Subtitle: All my bags are packed and I’m ready to go………

I’ve always like Lao Tzu’s observation that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. What I think that he left out is that the first step is the hardest. I’m about to take one of the longest physical journeys of my life and would like to share my experience. So where to begin? Perhaps I should introduce myself.

I’m Steve.

During my life I’ve picked up many titles such as; Dad, Babbo (Italian for Dad), Ornella’s Husband, Alfredo’s Dad, Lorenzo’s Dad, Friend, Colleague, Coach and Mr Engineer among other things. I’m also an IBMer.

I was hired by IBM almost 35 years ago as an Intern, was fortunate to be offered a permanent position and in hindsight couldn’t picture any other company that I’d rather be a part of. I’ve worked in manufacturing, product development, systems test and most recently in the North American Quality Team. I’ve found that I love to work with people of many different backgrounds and have arrived at the point in my life and career where I want to give back to society. So, when I heard about IBM’s Corporate Service Corp I knew that I wanted to apply.

What is the IBM Corporate Service Corp you might ask. This is something that I wrote about a few days ago. https://medium.com/@stevemazzuca/steves-off-to-australia-with-the-ibm-corporate-service-corp-931df5126d90

So after weeks of preparation I’m off. It’s going to be a long day….I drive to Bologna this morning and then fly to London where I catch a connecting flight to Shanghai and then head to Sydney and finally go to Brisbane. I’ll be in planes for over 24 hours. But it’s going to be worth it I’m sure.

Last night I got to have dinner with my Italian family which meant that we stayed up too late, ate too much and had a “bit”of wine. However, that said I still manged to get up at dawn for my daily walk. Since it was my last day Ornella’s aunt shortened our walk from the normal 8 k down to 6k (~4 miles). One of the locals was even up and wished me safe travels.

I’m looking forward to this opportunity and can’t wait to arrive in the land “down under”. Anyway, I’m about to leave, even though I’m a bit nervous I’m looking forward to meeting my colleagues in person and to making new friends. Here’s a picture of one of the locals that is waiting for me. He does look like a friendly sort.

Anyway, it’s time to shut down and hit the road.

Ciao for now,

Steve