My wife Susie and I reside in Frisco, Texas, with our two children, Annie and Jack. We moved to Dallas in the fall of 2002 as a result of my employer deciding to move the corporate office from Ventura, California, to Dallas. At first, I couldn’t imagine what life would be like in Dallas, but 11 years later, I can say that we’ve settled in nicely. Moving from an earthquake zone to tornado alley was an adjustment. We gave up the sunny coast and diverse landscape of Southern California for the flat landscape and unpredictable weather in North Texas. The hardest part of moving away was saying goodbye to family spread throughout the west in Thousand Oaks, Ventura, Lawndale, Las Vegas and Tucson. We knew it was going to be harder to see them regularly going forward, but it was a risk we as family decided to take to experience something new.

I started with Kinko’s back in April 2001. It was conveniently located minutes north from our home in Camarillo. A unique retail company specializing in consumer and small to medium business print, grounding myself in a stable organization was an important goal to support my growing family. Kinko’s was everyone’s local copy shop. With 1100 locations nationwide, the brand was pretty popular and well recognized, but six short months into my employment, the company was deep in change. The board was interested in selling Kinko’s and as a result, I was going to begin looking for a new job elsewhere. Unexpectedly, I was offered a position in Dallas if I wanted to move. I declined the offer, twice, as I couldn’t imagine leaving where I grew up. I couldn’t imagine making such a large change, after all, this decision wasn’t just about me.

11 years later, I can say that taking the risk was worth some of the tradeoffs. As a family, we’ve adapted to the move, making frequent trips west to visit family for holidays and vacations. We’re often bringing them to Dallas, too. Furthermore, we’ve developed an amazing network of friends and neighbors which is something completely different from what we had in California, a welcome change. All of our friends in Frisco are our extended family. They’ve been there for some of the good and bad that life brings our way and we’ve become a pretty tight community raising our kids together.

As for the job, moving Kinko’s to Dallas was an exciting time. IT can sometime be pretty mundane, but with the move to Dallas, there was potential for new things. Furthermore, the company was positioning itself for purchase. By 2004, FedEx had announced that they were purchasing Kinko’s. Already a strategic partner with FedEx, Kinko’s offered FedEx shipping services at all 1100 locations. The purchase of Kinko’s immediately gave FedEx 1100 retail store locations. This was an important move for FedEx as UPS had been aggressively expanding it’s popular retail store front, The UPS Store. Within a year, Kinko’s was rebranded to FedEx Kinko’s which has since been replaced by FedEx Office.

It’s been really busy since 2004, with natural disasters like Katrina, an aggressive expansion program increasing our store footprint from 1100 to 1900 in four years and the continuous integration of our systems with the larger FedEx enterprise, working at FedEx has been anything but slow or boring. Frustrating at times, it has been a great experience and I’m forever grateful for the initial offer to make the move to Dallas and the continuing opportunities FedEx brings my way each year.

As of Apr 2012, I’ve been working at FedEx Office for 11 years and I have the distinct privilege of being a part of a first ever program at FedEx. The Global Leadership Corp was an opportunity presented to me back in Sept 2010. It took a while to get off the ground, but as of January 2012, 13 managers from across the organization had assembled and began preparing for travel to India. Through the course of this blog, my hope is to share with you my experience as I take this new journey.

I want to dedicate this blog to my family, friends and coworkers with whom this trip would not be possible. To my VP, Carole Woodward, for electing me to represent our Dallas-based FedEx office and to my wife, Susie, and kids, for your courage to let me go and experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Many have made compromises to make this trip possible and I’m forever grateful and humbled by your generosity.

– Chris