STOP 8 | Milan: Dulcis in fundo, do my "soulhelpers" still bear with me?
Dedicated to the New Beginnings, that happen every now and then. Dedicated to Resets, who may be needed some times. Dedicated to Balance, which is something all of us need to aim to! And finally to the Hugs, who let you regain trust in the world.
Well, it happened, it was not planned, but I had the chance to meet some of the people who were closer to me in my 10y Google life, right during the last 16 hours I was in Milan. Probably they are the ones who saw the best and the worst of me. Not sure if they should be rewarded or rescued.
Ale
I hired Ale in Google Dublin years ago: he thought I was the manager during the interview, probably because I usually try to be serious and detached during the interview. Probably I cannot figure a person more different than me. Still don’t know why we became so close. He is now an entrepreneur in the fashion field, living in Milan.
He let me drink a drink, despite my diet, or I decided I could allow me a drink with him.
We spent less than a couple of hours and conversations with Ale are always intense and enriching. Since I was officially a guest, I offered him to do the toast: he toasted to “Cocci”, cocci means “shards” in English. Still not sure about Ale’s interpretation, but I asked him not to explain it, to leave it open.
Who knows!
Teo & Luca
In the Sales teams, starting a certain point, we introduced the role of Sales Coach: a more senior employee who had to coach him on sales skills).
Teo was so unlucky to have me as his Sales Coach. But even unluckier to have me as pod-mate (we worked as a couple, me account executive and him as account manager). Both of us are serious at work, but at least in the past I was a control freak. Teo still blames me for the amount of emails I use to send him every day, including weekends and after-hours, but more so about the amount of email I bcc’ed him into. Teo is now married to Juliette and just moved to the States, actually in my broader team: guess why he didn't want to join my team.
For the sake of honestly I didn’t like Luca at first: he used to work in another team in Dublin and I saw him – fully based on first impression – as a bragger (but never talked to him). No consideration was more wrong. We do not share only the name now, but a lot of more, spiritually at least, since he lives in Madrid with Jesica.
Given such intros, I really don’t know why they still talk to me. We had breakfast together, and their main focus was to make fun of me for most of the time. We briefly talked about work, since the 3 of us are still in the same company and how lucky we are and we envisioned some future plans, still to be defined. It was so nice to see them, especially Luca, as I hadn't seen him in years now, due to the pandemic.
The Last Supper
I have never had the chance to visit the Last Supper from Leonardo while living in Milan, as I said to myself: "I will do it later", same as the Cathedral rooftop. A couple of weeks ago I was able to book the ticket during my last day in Milan.
Seeing the Last Supper painted was emotional, especially considering that I allegedly was in the real room, back in Jerusalem during my 3rd stop.
Gianlu
In Google, we still have a buddy system, for the new joiners: a buddy is a person that best support a new team member as s/he ramps up.
Gianluca was my first buddee. I still remember the first time I saw him, so young and full of energy, below the Google Docks building in Dublin. We didn’t become friends immediately, especially because I wanted to separate public and private life, but he has always respected me as a professional and as a person, a way more than I respected him, probably. He now lives in Milan, working for another Tech company and being an entrepreneur as well.
I met Gianlu right before taking my train for the airport: it was really short but enriching, as due to some other circumstances, we hadn’t talked in a while. Surprisingly, it was like we kept talking everyday. Probably the focus of our discussion was more me, due to the sabbatical (we literally had 20 mins). Hopefully we will find time in the future to reconnect and keep talking.
I still need to understand a lot of things about myself, about managing emotional balancing, relationships and much more – who doesn’t? – but these motherfuckers were really important to me and seeing them right before leaving was probably the highlight of my entire Milan stop. They were like "soul-helpers" to me over the past years and I do not even know if such a word exists. When I find my place in the world, I really hope they can be there with me, virtually!
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