It has been six weeks since I submitted my resignation. I’m leaving an agency I’ve worked for for 18 years. Get that look off your face.
When I started there it was a small Mom-and-Pop child care agency. A place dedicated to taking care of children in the place of their struggling parents and guardians. There, kids could depend on us, that when they returned after school, someone would be there to greet them. That bedtime did not mean some horrible trauma or violation. That there was no need to hoard food because there was always going to be enough.
Over the years, as the agency has grown, so have I. At last count, I’ve held a minimum of eight positions while there. I started out as a counselor in a small boys group home and now oversee half the programs in this thriving, progressive haven. My membership in this dedicated family of child care professionals has been the best. I’ve had the good fortune to have outstanding mentors during my early career, and outstanding leadership as I progressed up the food chain. They made a way for me to go to school full-time to earn my masters and work full-time.
This experience has set the standard for all the professional relationships I will have for the rest of my life. So, if I’m so in love with them why am I leaving? It is time. I’ve done all that I can do to forward our mission and I’m ready to take on a new challenge in a very different part of my life.
This experience has set the standard for all the professional relationships I will have for the rest of my life. So, if I’m so in love with them why am I leaving? It is time. I’ve done all that I can do to forward our mission and I’m ready to take on a new challenge in a very different part of my life.
As I leave to head to California, on my new adventure as a screenwriter, I know I have an arsenal of skills that could not have been developed in any other way. I am taking the leap into the already full pool of full-time writers. Specifically, full-time unemployed writers. But I am buoyed by the fact that over these last 18 years I’ve faced challenges and obstacles with my clients that lets me know I can make something out nothing.
But it still does not stop me from admitting my fear. Of looking behind me a couple times, wondering if I am making the right decision. Risking everything for the unknown and letting a long-time dream be my guide. But transitions are never smooth. There is some level of stop and start. And definitely you find yourself shedding some things you never imagined letting go.
So here is to letting go. To grabbing on to new things and not forgetting the road you have traveled.
Michelle
No comments:
Post a Comment