firsts and lasts

This week has been full of firsts and lasts.
Today is no different.
Today is my last day of work.

I don't even know where to begin in expressing how incredibly amazing this job, this company, these people, have been. How does one describe the intangibles of a work culture that encourages, promotes, and rewards; management who give generously above and beyond to see passions fulfilled and dreams achieved; co-workers who are more like friends and family?

It is bittersweet, after three years, to be leaving.

I am certainly ready for change, ready to move forward, and yet I feel somehow a desperate sense of emptiness right now when I try to imagine what life will look like next week, next month, without the 6am alarm clock and the 7:30am start time; without the shift changes, the double shifts, the long hours; without spontaneous trips to New York City.

I am so grateful for all those who have been so instrumental in this journey I've been on. I could never have imagined, three years ago, that I would have been granted a job with so much flexibility, so much understanding, and monetary blessing far above and beyond the norm. Despite being a part-time employee, I have had full benefits for the last three years. In addition to my salary, there were generous quarterly bonuses. I was offered the opportunity, if I had so chosen, to join the sales and trading desk as a junior trader, an opportunity I would almost certainly never have been offered elsewhere.

Most incredible of all was the gifting of many thousands of dollars in payment for different aspects of the album that I've spent the last 18 months recording. Never could I have imagined, when I began, that the CEO of a major finance company would like, respect and appreciate me so much that he would offer to pay for my own personal goal to come to fruition.

It's going to be a rough afternoon...
But this day was always going to come.
I'm ready for what's next.

Just a little sad to go.