Do What You Love. Love What You Do.

My generation (yes, I am a millennial. I don’t like to talk about it.) grew up being told a lot of things in relation to finding our life’s calling.

– You can do WHATEVER you want. Be WHOMEVER you want to be.
–  Find your passion and live it every day. The money will follow.
– Don’t settle for a career that you don’t wholeheartedly LOVE.

For some, these lofty aspirations have resulted in some negatives… failure to launch, discontentment in perfectly great careers and endless searches for that thing we’re passionate about.

But for others- the lucky ones – it’s helped us take the leap into a career that is so much more than a job.

Today is my one-year anniversary working at Vail Resorts – specifically at Heavenly Mountain Resort here in Lake Tahoe. It’s been without a doubt, one of the most fulfilling years of my life. I’m proud to say I think I cracked the code on this whole “finding a job you love and are passionate about” thing.

Now, I don’t want to make this post a long diatribe about how great my job is. We all know that is annoying. But I do want to highlight some of the things that make me love what I do….mainly because I have some people to thank.

1. The People. I really love the people I work with. Both here at Heavenly and and throughout the company. The relationships I’ve built here are ones of support, encouragement, collaboration and celebration. Sure we’re competitive, but we’re all on the same team when it comes to our end goals.

2. The Passion. Everyone knows you don’t work in the ski industry because you want to make a ton of money. The people in this company are here because they LOVE skiing/riding, the mountains, traveling and sports. It’s incredible what can happen when you build a company with people who have chosen to live their passions every day.

3. My Mentors. I believe you can only be as good as people allow you to be. I’m extremely lucky to have mentors here at Heavenly and throughout Vail Resorts who champion my career, who believe in me and who provide me with opportunities to continually grow.

4. The Innovation. I am a dreamer. Put me in a brainstorm, and I’m the one who can’t be quiet. I love thinking up a big idea and then bringing it to life. Thankfully my company values innovation and is always looking to “try some experiments” as our CMO says. Just check out www.EpicMix.com if you don’t believe me.

5. The Skiing. Duh. It’s hard not to love a job when you have something as fun as skiing in your job description. In fact, this Friday, the whole marketing team here at Heavenly is skiing together to “test the product.”

A year later, and I still think taking this job was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Special thanks to everyone at Heavenly and Vail Resorts for making this year “Epic” for me!