It's The Endings Blogfest!

This blogfest is in honor of L.G.'s 2nd blogging anniversary and before I talk about my ending I want to take a moment to talk about how awesome L.G. is and how insanely happy I am that she's been blogging for two years and plans to continue to do so. 

Anyone who knows L.G. knows that she is one of the most supportive people in the awesome blogging community we call home.  She's also an incredible writer- from her Fiction Pieces to her serials to her 26 part story for the A to Z challenge last year she's proven herself to be an incredible writer and I am so, so grateful to know her.  Happy blogoversary, L.G!  Here's to many more!

Now, onto my ending: Tomorrow is my last day at my current job, so this blogfest is sort-of perfect timing for me to reflect on that.

First let me assure you that I am super-awesome-fantastically-over-the-moon excited about new job.  It represents a great opportunity so far as career growth, financial growth and practicing a lot of things I learned in grad school but haven't been able to put into practice in the settings I've been in thus far.  This current ending is one I've chosen in order to make a new beginning.

But that doesn't mean I'm not sad about it.  Anytime we get attached to something we feel sad when it ends.  That's just the nature of it.

My last job, the one before this, was the worst job I have ever had.  I'm sure a lot of people use that phrase capriciously but trust me when I say it- I really, really mean it.  I have never been so unhappy in my entire life.  Not even when I was going through my teenaged angst-ridden years.

Leaving that job and coming here was like emerging from a dark cloud.  It wasn't just that I was doing therapy again or that my experience made me comfortable in a setting like this- the air itself was clearer.  I'd come into work, look out my office window and feel happy just because the sun was out.  A sunny day did absolutely nothing to lighten my mood at my last job.  In fact, it made me more likely to despair because I knew where I was spending that sunny day.  But here, there was hope.  There were reasons to be happy.

Number one is my co-workers, and my boss. They are- and again I swear I'm not exaggerating here- the best group of co-workers I have ever had.  It isn't just that I respect them professionally or that I enjoy the camaraderie of all dealing with the insanity together.  It's that I actually enjoy talking to them.  Countless afternoon chats in offices where we might start by talking about something work related and quickly veer off into unrelated topics about whatever.  Lunches out for people's birthdays.  Our monthly potluck where we'd all meet for delicious food and delightful conversation.  Celebrating the holidays for the past few years has included special potlucks with them and it's going to be very strange without that now.

I have no idea if I’ll be lucky enough to like my new co-workers as much.  The environment I’m going to is a very different one and I’ll be much more independent in my work tasks which means less interaction with co-workers.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be shared lunches or office chats, it just means change.  And the change of not seeing these people everyday will be a tough one.

The other thing I’ll miss, as strange as this sounds, is this company.  It’s the first company that ever made any kind-of effort in terms of employee satisfaction.  They organized health fairs every year where local health vendors would come and give us stuff in order to attract new business.  A free massage, free granola or juice, a consult from the local chiropractor.  They had another vendor fair around the holidays so you could get a jump on your holiday shopping- right at work.  I’ve given blood at work multiple times (and given the frequency with which I give blood that’s a huge convenience.)  And of course the company Christmas party, the going-away parties for the higher-ups, the organized fundraisers for people suffering a loss.  They made a real effort and I haven’t seen that before.

In the end, I am nothing but grateful for the time I’ve had here.   And though I move onto bigger and better things I do so with the awareness that I am lucky to have spent some years here with this group of people. 

I will miss them.