My First Year End Event

Day 153

This month I will be doing some posts on a fun activity that I attended in November over the past few years: the Progressive Year End Event. Sadly, we no longer have these events, but when we did have them they were awesome! So well-organized, so clever, so much fun!

In 2002 I began working at Progressive and on November 16th 2002 I attended my first Year End Event. I remember that I was a little nervous about going there by myself, but I was intrigued about seeing my co-workers outside of work, dressed up and ready to party!

And everyone looked great - it looked like the prom! I found several of my good friends and co-workers and sat at a table with them in a large ballroom. There was a catered dinner, then there was music playing and soon I found myself out on the floor with my friends, trying to dance. I probably looked like a big fool, but I didn’t care. I was having too much fun to worry about appearances.

The highlight of the evening was when there was a huge raffle ticket drawing. All employees were able to have a raffle ticket entered into the drawing and there were tons of prizes to give away! The prizes ranged from gift certificates to DVDs to appliances! Speaking of appliances, yours truly won an appliance in the drawing! I was so surprised when my name was called, and then I went to the front of the room to receive my prize (drum roll please) a brand new...coffee maker. Ahem. The guy who has never tasted coffee (and never will) won this very nice, elaborate coffee maker. How’s that for irony!

I hadn’t ever won a prize in a raffle drawing before, and now I had my big moment and won a prize that I would never use. I remember that I had my picture taken with the prize and I tried to smile. At the same time, though, I worried about what example I was setting. Most of my friends and co-workers knew I was LDS, and understood that I wouldn’t drink coffee or alcohol. How could I represent the Church and my beliefs without offending this generous gift?!

My solution was to be appreciative, give thanks, and then I offered my coffee maker to a fellow team member. I explained that I didn’t drink coffee so this wasn’t something I needed. Simple explanation. I didn’t preach about the Word of Wisdom, but I still represented my beliefs, and hopefully I did this in a way that was both respectful of others and true to myself.

Anyway, my first Year End Event was so much fun! And I made certain I would go to the next one…