The Great Migration... in Reverse
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| Muddy Waters' House Mississippi Delta |
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| My Sweet Home Chicago Blues Garden |
Beginning in 1916 a metaphorical conflagration of bugs, wars, floods, depressions and agricultural machinery drove many African Americans to emigrate from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago for better work opportunities resulting in the South Side of Chicago being considered to be the Blues capital of the USA.
Flash forward to 2016 when a South Side Chicago boy and his beloved Basset Hound Sweetpea made a decision to depart from their home a mere block from the former site of Chess Records and emigrate back to Clarksdale, MS. for a life altering summer of adventure, soul searching, helping others, rescuing a second Basset Hound, preparing to run a road race in Chile for PAWS Chicago and completing a MIT course in Future Commerce.
I have found bugs, flood remnants, economic depression and agricultural machinery aplenty so apparently come things stay the same.
Regardless, the most interesting question of course is "How did you get there?"
Short answer - I wanted to shake my life up.
Longer answer - Despite having both a Nuclear and Financial Engineering degree, an MBA-Finance, Chartered Financial Analyst designation, Data Science / Machine Learning experience and considerable technology skills, I seem to find myself drastically underemployed much more often than not. I was paid well but just not engaged, nor fulfilled professionally. Well, an extremely accomplished, smart and talented friend of mine offered me a very interesting opportunity to come on down to the Mississippi Delta and shake things up, give back to the local community and accomplish my other summer goals - you know, adopting a second Basset Hound (Roscoe) and running another marathon in Chile for PAWS Chicago.
It seemed much more intriguing than doing a CCAR Stress Testing assignment at a local Chicago bank.
So let the shaking up commence.
It's an adventure y'all. And yes, I've decided to get the band back together..... otherwise known as to write about my experiences and share them with you on my blog.
