A few years back in 2008, I met one of my best friends while we were both studying Computer Science at NC State. His name is Will Davidson. We had many late nights studying and trying to get projects done before they were due the next morning.
Will is one of the most genuine people you will ever meet and isn’t afraid to tell you when you’re wrong :) During this time we were in college, he met his beautiful wife April while on a flight (she’s a flight attendant). I can remember the days when Will would mention that April was flying in to hang out for the day. To this day, that still sounds very weird that someone flies somewhere for a day! But it worked for them. Many times she would have a layover in Raleigh so that’s how they were able to spend time with one another.
The next thing you know, Will and April were getting married! I remember how excited Will was, but also very nervous because they were doing this during the middle of a semester. This meant that Will would be missing more than a week of class! Luckily for his friend Jared (that’s me), I was in history class, voice recorder and pencil in hand to help out with the notes! After Will got back from the honeymoon, things were back to “normal” except that now April was now permanently in Raleigh.
Fast forward a bit and next thing you know, Will and I are trudging through our final semester at NC State trying to finish our senior design project together in order to graduate! During this time, I was in the process of applying for jobs and going to interviews. Having worked for 2.5 years at SAS as an intern, I originally expected to be there upon graduation. However, the economy had other plans! During this same time, Will had been doing an internship at NetApp and had a job offer for when he graduated. That was so exciting!
Will started telling me about NetApp and how awesome it is. I decided to go talk to them at the upcoming career fair. Lucky me, I talked to the college recruiter that hired Will on as intern and knew him very well! Next thing you know I’m going to interviews at NetApp and ended up getting a job offer! All things said and done, I’m now at NetApp with Will. Sometimes you wouldn’t know it because we work one floor and about 50 steps away from one another, but don’t get a chance to sit and talk nearly often enough.
But 9 months ago, we did get a chance to catch up and the news was true, April was pregnant! This was great news! Of course from this day, every time I saw Will our conversations started with updates on how April is doing, how the baby is doing, is it a boy or girl, any name ideas yet, etc. Well one week ago today on November 21 at 11:43am, a baby boy known as Baby D was born!
Baby D you ask? Yes this was the baby’s nickname throughout April’s pregnancy, but why was this still his name when he was born? Well it wasn’t… technically. It wasn’t until several hours later that April and Will came up with a name, so for the first few hours of his life he was still known as Baby D. Then we all got the update we were waiting for, their new baby boy is named Malachi Liam Davidson! Although I make no promises to not call him Baby D for at least the next several months :)
I am so excited for Will and April for the new addition to their family and wish them the best going forward! They will both be great parents!
And without further ado, here’s that cute little bundle of joy!
