{i have so much left to say}

(yep, back to GA quotes. deal with it.)

Liza-Thanks for all your hard work and for always watching out for me. You truly will be missed around here as well. Best of Luck in all you endeavor. Just remember that there is bigger and better things out there for you.

That was the email I came into Thursday morning. My favorite rep in the office sent it after I left Wednesday, before she left on her last day after 10 years of service.

(Yes, they call it service. Not sure how I feel about that)

In the nearly 10 years that I've been here, I've seen many people come & go. People that you get used to seeing daily, people that become important to you. Then one day, all of a sudden, they're gone. For a few days leading up to it, you're sad...you talk to this person more often than you usually do, you vow to keep in touch. The morning after their last day, you notice the hole they left...but your day goes on as normal. By the next day, it's mostly forgotten. It happens over & over here, people come & go on a regular basis. Some get lots of fan fare, some just dissappear. Things carry on without then though. We do our jobs, we settle claims. Someone that we depended on leaves & we're fine.

Today, 4 months short of my 10th year of 'service', I will turn in my access badges & corporate charge card, clear off the last remaining personal belongings on my desk...and leave.

In June of 1997, I left my $6/hour assistant manager position at Tuesday Morning & started working at the insurance company directly next door to the store. My interview consisted of "Do you know your ABC's? Will you work these hours? Will you do it for this amount of pay? Good. You're hired." I'm not kidding. That's all it took. I was hired to prepare about 200 boxes of closed files to be sent offsite....and it had to be done within 2 weeks, before the fire marshall came back & locked the doors because they were piled up in a hallway causing a fire hazard.
Nearly 10 years later & I'm still here. I haven't worked in the file room in quite some time now, though I still joke that the only way to get out of there is to get pregnant. I've done so many things during my time here...from filing to dispatch to handling claims. And while I value every minute of it, it's time to move on.

I could go on & on about how things have changed here in the time I've been here. How the focus has turned from people to money. How in a company that thrives on acrnoyms, my title is now ASS. (not kidding) How I no longer have the proud feeling I once had when someone asked me where I work. How I have lost faith in this company...and their future.

But, it's been a decade. Things are expected to change. I've changed. I'm not the fresh faced 18 year old that I was in June 1997. I've seen things that people shouldn't have to see. Ever. I've had my ability to do my job questioned because of my young age. Again, it's time to move on.

So that's what I'll do today. I'll move on. To what? I don't know. I don't have a clue as to what I'm going to do. But I'll walk out of here today & take with me the knowledge & thick skin that I've gained while here. And tomorrow, things will go on here....as normal....as if I was never here.