Don’t tell Drew Davies this . . .

But I think I decided to work at Oxide Design Co. the first or second time I came to the office. (About ten months before anyone at Oxide actually wanted me here.)

I had kind of a reverse allergic reaction to the place. I walked out thinking, “Yep. There. I should be working there.”

Part of the appeal for me was the chance to work around designers again. It’d been two years since I left Bailey Lauerman, and I missed working in an office with designers and art directors and artists.I remember coming home from a meeting with Oxide — we had a mutual client — and telling my husband, “You know that place on Farnam with the cool sign? I need to make them want to hire me.” (Seriously, don’t tell Drew any of this — it makes me sound Machiavellian. I don’t want him to know I was scoping out the office trying to figure where they could squeeze in another desk.)

I love design, and Oxide is a really great design shop. (I mean, obviously, right? You’re on the website. You get that.)

But that wasn’t the main draw . . .

Have you seen the Oxide manifesto? It has four parts, and Drew & Co. slap it all over everything. It goes like this:

Help people.

Solve problems.

Realize meaningful change.

Make sense of the world.

As a copywriter and creative strategy person, I’ve helped a dozen organizations write or rewrite their mission and vision statements. Principles. Values. Declarations of purpose.

And none has ever resonated with me like Oxide’s immediately did. Help people? Solve problems? Make sense of the world?

That’s what I want to do with my life. That’s what I do with my work.

I know myself well enough by now to know I’ll never be a civil rights lawyer or a special education teacher. I’m never going to run for office.

Half my time these days is spent writing fairly useless love stories. (Novels. Which is a dream come true for me, I’m not even gonna front.)

But with the rest of my time, I want to be with good people — “good” meaning talented and “good” meaning actually good — and I want to make a difference. I want to feel like I’m part of something worthwhile.

Oxide feels worthwhile to me.

I’m really glad they made room for another desk.