Goodbye, Farewell, or See you later???

My Two Week Neverending To Do List

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My work has generously offered me a year unpaid leave of absence.  It's a pretty sweet deal and I am definitely not complaining considering that I am giving up my life savings for this trip.  And that I will need some cash for the fall season's sales when we come back.

But this arrangement has made my last day of work a little strange.  

For example, take packing.  Am I packing for good?  That would be easy because I would simply discard all traces of the mistakes made over the five years.  Or do I pack with the intention of returning in a year?  Then I would need to keep my notes and work documents for  refreshers. 

Then there are the goodbyes.  Throughout my last day of work, my co-workers came to bid me farewell and wished me all the best.  The goodbyes were all said under the impression that we would meet again in a year but we all knew that it might be permanent as people could move on within the year of my trip.

The Bag O' Shoes

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The packing continued into the wee hours of the night.  And what does one accumulate in 11795 hours of working at the same place?

• 13650512 emails (1365000 non-work related)
• 3 boxes of work notes
• 1 bag of shoes
• many funny memories
• many life long friendships

In the end, the emails were deletable, the notes will be useless after a year but the friendships are the only thing I will cherish and miss while I am away.

Possible farewell to NSS but to those who have kept me sane through the years.... see you very soon!

Jenn