The Future Kirklands

When I started my job at Verkada, I was sent out to San Mateo, California for a month expecting to learn about sales and security. I never guessed I would meet the love of my life. I still remember the exact moment Drew walked into the room, It was love at first sight! Over the first two weeks in California, our entire cohort became a tight-knit group. We spent our days in training and our weekends exploring the coast and the city together. By the time we headed back to Austin, we were all great friends. But I knew there was something special about Drew. Back in Austin, we became inseparable. Since we were both new to the company, we leaned on each other, hanging out constantly both in and out of the office. Drew quickly became my closest friend and my favorite person to see every day. It was NOT love at first sight for Drew... (crazy I know). For months, we worked side-by-side, spent our weekends in the same friend group, and shared countless laughs. As much as I cherished our friendship, I spent a good portion of that year wondering when he was finally going to ask me out! We had spent so much time together that by the time we finally acknowledged what was happening, we couldn't even pin down when our "first date" actually was. We finally made things official at the company Christmas party that December. While our friends saw it coming from a mile away, the journey from being "just coworkers" to best friends to soulmates is a time I will always treasure. It was my very own Jim and Pam office romance, and I am so glad I played the long game.

Meeting Mallory was completely unexpected for me. They say God works and moves in mysterious ways, and if you know me you will know that I tend to trust and follow God pretty blindly. At least to the best of my abilities. In our story, trusting God started out with me picking up my life from Greenville, South Carolina to move to Austin, Texas on a whim. I had built a life in Greenville that I loved. I had an incredible group of friends and community there, I was very involved in the Church, I coached football at Greenville High School for 3 years and I adopted my little furry best friend Maverick and together, with our 504 roommates, we weathered a global pandemic. At that moment I couldn’t imagine leaving. But see, that's the thing when we think we are in control as God had much bigger plans for me than I had for myself. Come early 2022 I was starting to explore a career shift. I wasn’t really looking yet but if I had been, it would have been in Greenville. In comes a company called Verkada. I had previously interviewed with them but I had decided that it wasn't quite right for me at the time, so I moved on. However, I expressed that if they were ever looking again to reach out. Sure enough they did, and I was interested. In March I flew from Greenville to Austin for an interview, not knowing a single person there or what I was getting myself into. Flying out and going through the whole process I planned to just use it for interview experience, sharpen some skills and get a free trip to a city I had never been to before. What I wasn't expecting is that I had an offer by the time I landed in Greenville. After a lot of thought and prayer, I was moving to Texas. With only a few days left in April I packed up the biggest UHaul trailer I could rent and Maverick and I moved to Texas. On May 1st I flew to California for the first time in my life, and on May 2nd I met Mallory. We were both starting at this company on the same exact day. Both to be located in the Austin office and starting our new careers in onboarding out on the west coast. If you have read Mallory's story first you will have come to know that she knew from day 1, and I was a slower burn. I had just moved across the country to start a new job and new life, the last thing on my mind was to take any romantic interest in a new co-worker. I had made up my mind and I was stubborn about it. Over the next 2 weeks that we spent in Cali, we got to know each other pretty well. We had a group of friends and we all spent a lot of time together. We laughed, played ping pong(she was good, big win for me), we became mom and dad when we and all of our new friends went out on the town, and we trauma bonded up and down the Pacific Coast while being driven by our new friend Arie. Needless to say, the car itself and his driving were questionable at best. After arriving back in Austin we continued to spend every weekend together. She would pull me away from work to go play ping pong and some say that’s where we really fell in love(kidding). She really made a big move for a small town boy from Georgia so easy. Looking back now I know that I couldn’t have done it without her. We have since endured long distance for a year as I moved back to Greenville and then moved back to Austin again to be together. I’m running low on character limit and Mal told me I didn’t need to write an entire book, but there simply arent enough words I can say to tell her how thankful I am for her and our journey. God really was working in our lives and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us. I love you, Mal.