On April 1st, 2011, I walked out the doors of The North Michigan Avenue Apple store as an employee for the last time.

My fellow employees were lined up from the glass staircase to the doorway leaving me no choice but to walk down the middle between them. As I approached they began to clap and cheer at full intensity. I had been a part of this ritual countless times in my six and a half years with the company so I knew it was coming. Still it took every fiber of my being to stay composed. I bolted for the door and when I finally got there I turned around, looked back at my friends and threw my arms in the air to wave goodbye one last time.

Seconds later I turned the corner. Once I knew I was out of the view of my colleagues I let loose and full on wept.

I couldn’t hold it back. Working for Apple was more than job, Apple was a family. Apple still is my family. I have met some of the most important people in my life through Apple. Mentors, friends, lovers… you name it.

Apple allowed me to put my creative energies to use. They enabled me to move halfway across the country to start over; and they inspired me to strike out on my own.

I learned more working for Apple than I did through all of college and high school combined. I grew more as a person than I could have possibly imagined. Apple filled me with memories and experiences that I will cherish until I die. All of that, those people and memories are a part of me, many of them mean more than anything else ever will. I wouldn’t trade any of it, the good or the bad, for anything.

This morning I woke up in a hostel in Bruges and heard the news. I looked at Twitter and it was filled with loving, thoughtful comments and not a single one in poor taste. I then looked through instagram and it was flooded with photo tributes. Every news site was filled with articles and comments regarding his passing.

And I wept.

I never met the man, I never even saw him in person (though I apparently stood right next to him and didn’t know it) and yet there I was standing on a picturesque bridge in the middle of Bruges on a dreary, cold day openly weeping.

My friend Nick today posted on his Facebook regarding Steve’s death. He mused on how people feel like they know someone in the public eye when really they don’t know their internal person and said that he hopes Jobs was as good in person as we all like to think he was. I would like to counter that point.

That one man who Nick claims I didn’t know, whom I never met and probably didn’t even know I existed profoundly changed my life for the better and for that I am eternally grateful.

When I heard of his retirement I did something that I swore as an employee I’d never do.

I emailed him.

It was just a simple thank you, basically saying a lot of the things I’m saying here. I have no idea if he read it and I never will. And thats okay. I didn’t need anything from him. I didn’t need to know him personally. The Steve I knew… the Apple I knew gave me more than enough.

Thank you Steve.

A few days ago Tim Jahn posed an interesting question on his blog.

In short Tim’s looking to discover why people work when they do, and do they draw lines between personal and business at certain hours?

I’m pretty sure I can relate to Tim on this question. Tim, like many others of our generation, leads more than one life, with two jobs (his web development business and his awesome video podcast Beyond The Pedway) and he’s about to be a father. With so much going on it can be hard to figure out where to draw the line… If anywhere. This is a question I’ve been posing to myself lately as well. I’m pretty damn busy these days – working for Apple, taking improv classes, working with Long Pork, blogging, assorted photo and video gigs and trying to stay active in the social networking scene of all these communities so I can live up to the “localcelebrity” moniker – it’s hard to keep it in control and to some degree my personal social life has taken a hit and let’s not even discuss my sleeping routine.

The thing is though, I’ve never been happier. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m doing the things I love, I’m “working”, being pretty successful at all of it and barely any of it feels like work. To me, there is no line, if you love what you’re doing, it won’t feel like a chore and you won’t need to take a break from it all that often.

I love what I’m doing. I love the people I’m meeting in these different communities, I love the skills I am learning and the things I’m creating. This to me is what life is about. Constant growth and enrichment. Yes there are some things I need to change and cut out, but I believe strongly that if I keep working at it and doing the things I love, not letting anything get in the way that it’ll all slowly fall into place.

I read once, not sure where, that Steve Jobs looks himself in the mirror every morning and asks if he wants to go to work, and the day he says no are the days he realizes he needs change something, and he does. That to me is me right mentality to have.

If you love what you do, there are no hours and you won’t mind.

But who am I to say that? I’m just some jerk blogging from a hostel in Thailand and “working” through the vacation of a lifetime.

(and I couldn’t be happier doing so).