It was 1981 and times were hard, jobs scarce, the economy dragging (sound familiar?). Time to take a chance, shift career paths, we decide, over our little Friday night $5 party (an 8-pack of Rolling Rock ponies and a half-pint of Jacquin’s Ginger Brandy; tasty…). Off to grad school, fingers crossed, gambling on the future.

Flash forward. Now closing in on 21 years at SAS Institute, an outfit I knew nothing about when I first landed here. It seemed like a leap of faith: a small software company in North Carolina, with only about 1,600 employees or so at the time. But it had an in-house Publications Division that created user documentation and that’s where I would begin. But absolutely no one in my circle of family and friends had ever heard of SAS.

Today, I have a niece in Florida who flies around the country setting up and managing call centers. A nephew in Virginia who works in supply chain management for a large oil company. Another nephew in Texas who is a project manager for a company that develops GPS software. Every one of them has had direct or indirect contact with SAS software. I can say the same for the sons and daughters of at least a half dozen friends, working in various industries. And, now, SAS software is even taking hold at the high school level, where students learning to use it could end up with some very nice job opportunities, indeed.

And now here I am writing a blog post and thinking that we (well, some of us, anyway) could really use a PROC FINALFOUR. (Please. A little forecasting help here: my bracket was blown up way too soon…. )

It’s been a long, strange—and quite fine—trip since that $5 party. Oh yeah.