NG: Thanks for the memories

It’s been a great weekend. I went to the wedding of Danny and Charmind (and stayed in a beautiful..... yet interesting room), my future Godson Jacob (who I can't wait to meet) was born to Mel and Tom,

I spent some time with my beautiful nieces, had a great Sunday morning at church and hung out with Wifey (whilst we were admittedly a bit tired / mildly hanging after the wedding). 

But now my attention turns to something that has been coming for a year – my final two days working for National Grid.

If I’m completely honest, I’ve got real mixed emotions about my last couple of days. I’m amazingly thankful that I’ve got a new job to go to and that I’m excited about (did I mention I’ve got a job lined up now - I can't remember?) and I’m pleased that this slow work death is going to be over with (a year is a long time to be building to any event). But at the same time after pushing down my feelings and powering through for the best part of a year, I’d be lying if I said anything other than that I’m hurting.

It’s not the leaving the job part that’s getting to me. I’ve got to the stage now where I’m running on autopilot and I need a new challenge. But the simple fact is that in two days’ time I’ll never be working with this bunch of people again. I’ve spent 10 years working with these people. We’ve laughed together. We’ve cried together. We’ve grown together. We’ve stumbled together (mainly after pub time). We’ve grieved together and we have fought for each other. Our office is a community. Our office is a family. And my experience from other people leaving and reporting back is that our office is completely unique and that no one has ever experienced anything similar again. It’s something I’m immensely proud of.

Before you say anything, Yes, I’ll go into my new job with an open mind. I really am excited about starting something new and meeting loads of new people. But I’m not ready to think about that yet. Until the 3rd April (our final party), my mind is solely focused on making the most of the time we have together. It’s easy to say that we will all stay in contact with each other but the sad truth is that some will fall away. I understand that. I accept that. I know that I won’t let myself be one of the ones that do drift from our little family but for me that places even more importance on the time that we do have left with each other. A new chapter is about to begin but there are still a few pages left to be written in this one first.

So this post is dedicated to the people that I have had the honour of working with for the last 10 years. My colleagues. My friends. And the ones who have become so much more than that. The ones that I’ve grown so close to that this simply can’t be the end. It’s just the start of another step on our journey together.

Thanks for the memories :)

Andi

I’ll leave you with this song as the words, well…..