and Words
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey, hey!
Won’t you come see about me?
I’ll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby
Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
On a crisp Tuesday morning, I walk the short distance from my building to the nearby building with the cafeteria. I settle on a familiar table in a section of the large room. The dining room is sparsely populated; the collections of people resemble islands in an archipelago in a sea of tables. I walk the short distance to the grill station where I order breakfast on the kiosk, typically an omelet and a side of hashbrowns. I proceed to the espresso stand, where I order my tall latte and a pastry, often a bacon maple bar. Now, I play a tranquil waiting game; it’s a race between getting the coffee, the food, or my friends arriving.
Slowly people drift in and sit down. Some walk directly from their cars to the cafeteria; they place their coats and bags next to the table as they sit down. Having arrived at work earlier, others wander from their office to the cafeteria. We may talk about anything and often do. Topics typically center around technology and news. Occasionally, we bring up current projects; oftentimes, having a diverse set of geeks as a sounding board for designs or approaches. Sometimes we chat about deeply personal topics which dominate our attention.
Welcome to The Breakfast Club; it’s a recurring social meeting. I scheduled it for 9:05am to 9:37am; no, I’m not kidding.
Naturally, our meeting refers to the 1985 film, The Breakfast Club. They released the film when I was in high school, when I was neck-deep into that culture of cliques and popularity. The movie spoke to me; I identified with each of the characters even if only in small ways. It allowed me to start to understand and humanize some of the other prototypical characters. It led me to realize that they each have depth and nuances to who they are and how they behaved.
On a Saturday morning, they arrived at school to attend detention. The five of them are a collection of self-described: a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal. Subsequently, they spent the day unintentionally breaking down barriers that they each erected over the course of their young lives. For one day, within the confines of that library, they suspended the forces that descended upon their lives. They were allowed to be who they were. They even pondered if their friendships would continue on Monday morning, though some conceded that they probably wouldn’t. We got to witness a moment caught in time; we even see subtle glimmers of hope.
As the movie ends, they cue up this song. The music itself is upbeat, almost a celebration. However, the words however oscillate between hope and sadness. In moments of optimism, it expresses the hope that their friendships and newfound honesty will continue. However, it casts doubt and asks, “Will you call my name or walk on by?” Though the simplest and most powerful plea, “Don’t you forget about me”, that they should all remember that one fateful day in the library.
Early in my career, I took advantage (or even abused) the ultra-flexible time granted to us as Microsoft employees. I routinely shuffled into the office in the afternoon and stayed until absurdly late hours. Being a creature of the night was a point of pride. I found those meetings scheduled for 10am to be obscenely early, ones that I would need to prepare for like an early morning flight. There were instances when I headed to bed as I noticed the sun rising around the edges of my black-out blinds.
As we got our home together, we synchronized our schedules. Consequently, I became a morning person. However, one friend asserted that being a morning person is an immutable trait, that zebras can’t change their stripes; I proved him wrong. As my schedule changed, I would routinely bookend my teammates by mere minutes. Some maintained that had it not been for the change of clothes, that they’d believe that I never left the building. This amused me.
About a year into our new home, we needed to start our day unusually early, before the sun came up, for a period of weeks. In solidarity, I chose to go into the office instead of going back to bed after dropping her off. However, I skipped breakfast at home and elected to order breakfast at work once our cafeteria opened. As I quietly sat down for breakfast, I noticed the same set of familiar faces who started their day at similar times. However, it didn’t take long for us to sit together. This was the unofficial start of The Breakfast Club.
Once my schedule shifted to a more conventional time, I put the meeting on the calendar. The location has shifted as we moved buildings; they include Building 86, Building 50, Building 112, and Studio H. At this stage, it has spanned over a decade. As people change teams and companies, some of the faces have changed. Occasionally, friends who have left the company will come back just to join us for Breakfast Club.
The routine was similar. First, we designate a place to meet, gather our breakfast, and sit down. Next, we simply enjoy the company; it’s about fellowship. Occasionally, we’ll observe another colleague walk by as they get their breakfast or coffee and sweet talk or guilt them into joining us.
Upon reflection, our Breakfast Club is distinctly different from its namesake. First, we enjoy each other’s company and choose to spend time together; we weren’t thrown together and held captive in a library. Second, there isn’t any social angst from our stereotypical personas; we’re generally all geeks (though naturally we have other interests) and we don’t care to stereotype. Finally, the movie outlined one fateful meeting among these unexpected young people; we started many years ago and continue to meet.
The one element that remains the same, as I hear the familiar song from Simple Minds, I reminisce upon these friends. I remember fragments of conversations from years ago.
Upon hitting the pandemic, we shifted The Breakfast Club to Skype where we still meet. This has endured even upon my leaving Microsoft and joining Pokémon. It remains largely the same in spirit.
Note: We even had a persistent conversation on Microsoft Teams to call people to the cafeteria for breakfast (or just coffee); the subject of that conversation was “12,648,430”. Let me know when you figure out its significance. 😉