Countdown

The black unemployment rate is 16.7 percent, "the highest in 27 years," I read earlier today.


I, on the other hand, just left a meeting with HR. I made arrangements to leave my key card and badge after I clock out.
 
Tomorrow, I am leaving my job.

I did it the "right" way, of course - gave two weeks' notice, put it on paper, gave people a heads up.

I'm making resolutions that can't wait until the new year. January 1st is almost exactly 4 months away; that's far too late.

I know the job search is grueling and unkind. I know the toll it can take on your finances, your self-esteem, your temparament.

I almost regretted my decision to voluntarily subject myself to that psychological minefield. Maybe it'll be easier the second time around?

Life has been one big transition of late. Transitions are perhaps the trickiest to navigate. You know what failure looks like. Success, you've reached that too. But the in-between? That slope where the ground is neither firm or well-lit? Yeah, it's tricky.

But I'm hopeful. I'm optimistic. I'm talented. I'm learning to believe in the gifts that I have been given. And as mom said, "If you know in your heart there's something better for you, sometimes you have to take that risk and find it."