My doctor says he thinks I’m having a mid-life crisis.

I was so surprised I nearly fell off my skateboard.

I don’t remember the summer of ’76. I mean I was there but I was six months old so I’m not expected to remember it, surely.

1976 is when the first Ford Fiesta rolled off the production line (in Spain, co-incidentally). Despite not being a Fiesta owner previously maybe I share more with this car than just a long hot first summer…

1979: The millionth Fiesta was built for worldwide sales. Meanwhile I was receiving my first school report from nursery (ahh!) which described me as ‘cheerful… eagerly participates in activities’ – good job given this adventure, hey!

1989: By this point the Fiesta is on Mark III and I’m at secondary school.

1996: Mark IV co-incides with my first experience at Ford; as a summer vacation student in the HR team at Warley (where I still work!). I’ve written about it before, but basically it was 12 weeks of friends, pubs, and of course Real Work that meant something. Intoxicating…

2006: ‘Not much’ (disclaimer, opinion!) happened in the Fiesta world, other than first forays into voice activation and Bluetooth, but I was back at Ford, this time in the Credit business, again in HR. I’ve been with the Company ever since so you could say this was an important year for me!

So to 2017: two more Marks for the Fiesta, bringing three children home for me… personally I’m looking back at 20 years at work, forward to another twenty years, and thinking about how to make the biggest impact in that time.

I’m definitely mid-life, maybe like this car I’m ready for another bigger and better phase to begin…

{If you enjoyed reminiscing with me and the Fiesta, you can find out more about the first 40 years of Fiesta production here)

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I’m taking part in a really special @forduk event this week, sharing all the excitement with you on Social Media. Be Social with me using the icons below #newfiesta #FordFiesta