Reflections on five years anniversay in the US
Published Dec 5, 2016
On this day in 2011, I arrived in the US for the first time. Actually, it was around midnight when we landed at the DFW airport. I was with a friend, also traveling for the first time. When we finally collected our luggage and made it outside, it was snowing lightly. And it was breath takingly cold. As we waited for our ride, we made several trips back to the warmth of the luggage area to beat the cold.
It stayed cold for the next few weeks with occasional snow. I had never seen snow before. Well, technically I had seen snow once before – it had snowed in Kathmandu on Feb 14 a few years before, but it was more sleet than ice really. We stayed indoors mostly and when we went out for errands, everything was covered in ice and beautiful. Everyone was miserable, including me, but I remember that cold fondly now. The way it snows here is just picturesque. It was exactly like I had imagined and seen in the movies.
The snow didn’t last, sadly, and it gave way to the blistering heat that Dallas is known for. The heat was also something I had rarely experienced. But you learn how to live; and the AC helps.
It’s snowed every year except 2015 around Dallas and I sure do hope it snows this year.
I was a web developer before I came to the States. In fact, I had my own company back home (more on that in a later post). I already had a few clients in several countries. The first few weeks and months, I worked for them before I realized it wasn’t going to work. The pay I was getting was not sustainable in the US and I would have to either find a regular job or step my freelancing game up. I tried advertising on Craigslist first and did get some good leads. But, that didn’t pan out either. I had no idea how much to charge. More importantly, I had no idea how to provide a good estimate for a project.
In January 2012, I was approached by a couple to make a dating website. We sat outside a Starbucks and they showed me several dating websites they liked. Later that day, I sent them my estimate: $700. Seven hundred fucking dollars! I was naive like that. They accepted promptly and I began working on the site. Actually, it were my mates that were working on the site back in Nepal and I helped communicate. It was good chunk of money for them, but even by Nepalese standards, this couple was getting their work done for peanutes. We shipped the website in a few months but they never launched. They reached out to me several years later and asked if I could help launch the site and were promptly shot down when I said it would be the original amount per day.
After several other stints, I thought it was time for me to get a more serious job. I knew how to make websites and I figured there were companies that needed my skills. So, I googled “best web development agencies in Dallas” and found two I liked. I attached my resume and sent emails to both the companies. I heard back from one of them right away. “Do you have a green card?”, they asked. I did, and replied so. They set up an interview for the next day. I started with them the next Monday. I worked for that company for three and half years and made some wonderful memories.
I did hear back from the other company I had applied for, but I had already started my job.
I have so many memories of these past five years, that it’s hard to write all of them down. I think I’ll start a series of these past memories.