Mixed Emotions

So, my days at my current job are winding to an end. It hasn't completely hit me yet that I have two short weeks left, so I'm always mildly shocked when someone brings it up.

This is bad for two reasons: 1 - since I'm not mentally prepared to leave, I'm also not mentally prepared to student teach...and I'm going to need all the help I can get!
2 - when it does hit me, it's going to be much more emotional than I'm okay with. I'm not a crier in general, and I really don't like to do it in front of people...I'm afraid that I'll be a mess whenever the "going away" things culminate.

One of the best and worst things about leaving is that you discover how valued people really think that you are. It's great b/c I feel like I truly am a respected member of our HR team, and people have been slowly and steadily coming out of the woodwork to reinforce that. It's bad because I feel as though I have under appreciated my colleagues.

I have only good memories of when I left my last position. I lived and worked in the Virginia Beach area, and I worked in a company's distribution center as the Assistant HR Manager for about a year and a half before my position was eliminated and I was moved to the corporate office. I was lucky enough that they had a position to move me into, but it was a job that a smart monkey could have performed. I only lasted six months before I moved back to Pittsburgh.

Yet, in those short six months, I made inroads into my new co-workers. I joined a group of ladies who walked around the parking lot twice a day, I chatted with the employees in Benefits who sat by my cubicle, and I became friends with the receptionist who worked for the CPO (that's Chief People Officer - no, I'd never heard of it before either). All of this resulted in a surprisingly touching response when they found out I was leaving. Cards, tokens, a happy hour...I was really shocked at how everyone reacted, and I know how heartfelt it was.

Since then, I have occasionally gone back and read those cards whenever I'm down in the dumps. I have a picture of my closest corporate friend and me in my room at home, and I stay in touch (okay, sporadically - I'm so bad at that!) with my boss from the distribution center.

So it's beginning to be time to gather the newest additions to my collection. It may seem silly, but I really appreciate every small thing that people have been saying to me. I got a random e-mail this morning (in response to a sassy remark I made about how she's not going to have to nag me anymore) from someone in my department who told me what a joy it was to work with me.

I can also see my co-workers sneaking around, blatantly hiding things from me. That sounds like a contradiction, but it's not - they'll ask me to leave the room and then I hear peals of laughter coming from behind the closed door...

I just need to remember to gather these comments and keep them with me, so that I can examine them whenever I'm feeling discouraged in a new job or down about changing careers.