In the past week, without actually realizing it, I've found myself in a lot of situations where I'm in a "wrapping things up" mode. All around me are signs to get things into a state of resolution.
It started on Halloween, when I called Tim to wish him a happy sabbatical. He'll be gone for 6 weeks and, I'm guessing, when he returns, I'll be on my sabbatical for 6 weeks. We'll catch up before Christmas, I know, but we both know that things are changing and our co-worker status will likely be ending soon. It's hard to walk away after 5 ½ years.
Then I dropped an email to all the people who have traveled with me to Biloxi to ask if they had any specific sites or stories they wanted me to follow up on next week while I'm there … for, quite likely, my last trip (at least for awhile). I then sent a note to Jim, my mentor and friend, asking him the same question … basically reaching out to see who is gonna miss what – 'cause I'm gonna miss it all.
This morning, in my big city office, I was waiting for my coffee and ran into my ex-boss from my days working at a large, Fortune 10 company. (I see him about 5 or 6 times a year now, and we still exchange Christmas cards.) I deeply respect Tom, and he asked me how things were going. He listened to my update and then said that it was good to see me so happy. I kind of found this ironic, given that I've been in a low period lately.
I go to my desk and one of the volunteers from my first week (Eva) was in the office and we talked for a bit. Ella (a volunteer from week 5) wished me well, and two encounters rather shook me. The first was the local cut up (Brian) wishing me a good trip and then saying, as he walked away, "Wow Jules – ya' just make the rest of us look like crap sometimes, ya' know?" And I had to remind him (or felt I should anyway) that I was only doing my job. The second encounter was that I randomly managed to raise close to $150 to donate for a co-worker who lost his home in the San Diego Fires recently and a fellow co-worker (Jamee) gave me a big hug for doing it. I guess I'll never understand being thanked for stuff like that, and I promise I'm NOT humble. It's just … it seems like an obvious thing to do, I guess.
Anyway, then I drove to our headquarters, where I passed a volunteer from week 2 (JJ) literally walking on the street and arrived at HQ for my mid-year review (hey, only 3 months late but who is really counting, right?) and then had to get some paperwork submitted and ran into a volunteer from week 4 (Marcio).
I also caught up with Scott and Andy, to find out how their quarters had gone and see what was up in their lives. Scott's house is likely gonna be done at the end of November, by which time Andy will have probably moved into a new role (but in the same division).
I left around 3:20 and spent an hour and a half at a coffee shop catching up with another volunteer from week 2, Bruce. I was right when I felt that he and I had really connected during our work week – we had. We picked up right where we had left off and just kept going.
When I return from Biloxi, I'll have to figure out my sabbatical. When I return from my sabbatical, I'll have to figure out what I'm gonna do for employment, as my current job will end on January 31st, 2008. I don't know what that will look like. I'm just not this seemingly amazing person that all these people keep giving me credit for being. I'm just trying to find my way. I have all these wonderful guideposts, and I'm making my way through by reading the signs.
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