Missing the Blah Blah Blahs

I've got 14 days of work remaining before I leave my current job and start this new adventure called "paying for your own insurance." And I'm pleased to tell you I'm not having second thoughts. Every moment that passes is a reminder that I'm doing the right thing.

But it is not the easy thing. And beside all the financial worries that accompany a move like this (and the self-doubt that never ever goes away), the hardest thing about leaving the place I work is saying goodbye to everybody there. Let me take you through the typical day, and you'll see how good I've had it in the people department.

I start the day with the carpool, which includes my dad. That's pretty special, despite the fact that I snore the whole way there. We walk across the plaza together like we own the place. We don't own it. But . . . well, yeah, we kinda do.

When I get to my department, there's no one else there, normally. People straggle in as the day goes on, and I try to greet everybody at one point or another. I talk a lot. A surprisingly huge part of my day is spent in unplanned (but not entirely coincidental) conversations. I try to cheer people up. It's a sort of challenge. I don't always succeed, but . . . it's kind of an extension of my job.

When you write - no matter what you're writing - you're always writing to a real person. You're trying to connect, to make them glad they just read what you wrote. So . . . that's kinda what I try to do all day long, just in person and without a pen. It's not wasting time, it's practice.

And it's fun. It makes meetings fun. It makes lunch fun. It makes playing wallyball fun (and yes, I still owe you a post about the greatest indoor sport of all time). It makes coffee taste better, it makes walks through the cold feel a little warmer, and it makes long, nasty drives back home through Chicagoland traffic seem entirely endurable.

I'll miss that. Now, I'll totally enjoy doing the same thing with my family. But still . . . I've done it at Moody for so long, and everyone I've wasted the day away with has given me so much of themselves . . . I'll miss that. But I'm still leaving.