Another Chapter in the Book

Today is Wednesday. Tomorrow will be my last day of work at my current job.

It’s always a weird feeling for me to leave a job. I often wonder how things will be once I leave. Will anyone even notice? Will things get better? Get worst? Then there’s always the sense that I am abandoning them. How could they possibly work without all my silliness and random interruptions? I think this is especially true with this move. My current group is going to be in a lot of trouble and lacking some serious manpower to run things with me and another person leaving. Even more serious than that, my boss has also decided to leave the group.

I’ve really liked my job here and the people that I’ve worked with. I’ve gotten to do some really cool things that I’ve read about in school. In the 2 years I’ve been here, a lot has changed. When I first got here, the company was laying off thousands of people. This is in sharp contrast to the recent merger and adding another 20,000 people to company. Having gone through major lay offs and merger between fortune 100 companies is something one doesn’t often experience.

It’s really too bad that my job is located in Kansas City and far away from anyone I know. I’ve always told everyone that I really liked my job, but can’t stand the place I lived at. Now, I’m going to a city with people that I know I’ll love, but the job is now the unknown.

I’ll be leaving some people here that I hope to keep in touch with. It seems that as people’s lives get more complicated (or just old), it gets harder and harder to keep up. What would I do without the random drunk calling (and now drunk text messaging)? I think that’s the only mechanism I have to keeping up with people I don’t talk to on a regular basis.

On Monday I’ll be starting my new job. This job will be very different in structure and scope from what I’ve done before. First of all, the company is virtual. That means pretty much everyone works from home. We will see how I adapt to being cooped up at home all day. I’m not sure how great that is for my sanity.

One big draw for the job is that I’ll be able to move back to Atlanta. I grew up mostly in Atlanta. I never did like it much back then. While I was growing up, I’ve always wanted to live Seattle and/or LA. And if you look at where I’ve lived, I was slowly creeping towards the west coast.

The longer I’ve been away from Atlanta, the more I’ve missed it. I’ve missed being able to order sweet tea without someone saying ‘there’s sugar packs on the table’. I’ve missed being close to people I know. I’ve missed being in the city that I’ve raved at many a warehouses. And lastly, I’ve missed the city I grew up in.

I’ve been moving around for quite a while now. Moving from job to job every couple of years. In an interview, I would explain it as my need to be exposed to different industries and companies, and that is true to some degree. I would however, say that my need to move is just part of a search. My search for a home.

Home doesn’t just mean a place. It also means the people that populate that place. I’ve lived in many areas that would be great to build a home, but a house doesn’t make for a home. A home is a stable place you know you will be for a while. A home is where you build your life. A home is where it’s surrounded by your people who make your home part of a group. A home is a place I want to share with someone else and grow old.

Another chapter of my life closes and a new one begins. This new road will be filled with uncertainty (job wise) that I have never experienced before, but I will be comforted by the familiar, yet seemingly unending, search for a home that I so much long for.