Today marks the end of an era for me. My job of six and a half years (Bill Clinton was president when I started… Awww, the good old days) comes to a close. Really my job came to a close in March, I have merely been waiting out my time to collect my severance package. I remember feeling the knot in my stomach on a Monday morning this past November, when I heard on Morning Edition (WBEZ) that there was an announced buyout by a private equity firm which would make for the largest (at the time) public to private buyout in US history. I knew my end was near because for the past couple of years I have been handling employee stock benefits administration. Going private meant no stock, which meant no work. As you would expect, the last several months has been every bit the emotional roller coaster one would expect when one’s livelihood is threatened.

In the end, I cannot be angry with my employer… I have had one hell of a good run career wise. I have doubled my salary in six years, I have vastly improved my skill sets, and I have gotten to know a wealth of great people who will vouch for me for the next employer. (To my fellow coworkers that may happen upon this post, thank you for the experience.) My employer always did a better than average job of taking care of my needs (summer hours anybody?), and the ending is no different. I will miss very much my comfy workstation next to my window with a bit of a view, and I will miss the 25-cent sodas, I will miss the Mediterranean place downstairs. In the end, it became a gift of sorts; it was the cash out of my stock, and the severance package that is making my move to NYC truly possible, and for that I cannot be angry…

So goes the road of life… We don’t always know where we are headed, how we are going to get there, or what our experience will be like along our journey. All we know; is that we must move along down that road, for to stay in one place too long would simply mean we are broken down and in need of repair. So goes the road of life…

This photo shot in April while on an impromptu visit to farmland about 45 miles south of the Loop.