Showcasing Talent
Reynaldo Juarez – Site Builder
December 2004, sitting on the floor of the Hoffeinz Pavilion, waiting for my name to be called, I began to reminisce about my second brush with death. I was six years old. My brother and I were running around the grazing pasture just outside of our little town of Guanajuato, Mexico, roaming among the ranchers and cattle. One moment, we were laughing gleefully, then, suddenly, my brother's laugh morphed into a mask of terror, his face frozen in fright. I turned to look at what he saw, and immediately became immobile, terrified as a 700-lb bull came charging at us. It was too late to run; this massive, horned black beast was already too close. One of us would surely be skewered or trampled. The sound of his magnificent charge grew deafening while our voices shrieked and cracked. Preparing for our inevitable fate, I thought to myself "no puede ser" (this cannot be). And like a miracle, out of nowhere, a deep, stern voice yelled out, "Yaaa!" Through my tangle of eyelashes, all I could see was a larger-than-life black blur break to the right of us, almost in a perfect right angle. And there, standing in front of us, was one of our cousins, his reprimand of us hardly registering through our audible sighs of relief.
"This cannot be" and thankfully, it wasn't. I went on to receive a Bachelors Degree in Information Technology, graduating Summa Cum Laude from the University of Houston. I am now enjoying my next great adventure, working at Idea. Lucky for me, I work with a remarkable group of people and clients who truly make my job enjoyable. We take great pride in our projects, from inception to fruition. So far, my proudest moment has been when our team won the AIR (Accessibility Internet Rally) Houston 2007 competition. The goal of the competition was to build a fully accessible website for a nonprofit organization and it was a tremendous honor to participate, let alone win.
Sometimes I still say, "This cannot be" because often my job doesn't feel like work, it feels like an adventure. Fortunately, the adventure just keeps getting more interesting.