The End Is The Beginning

Today was my last day of work at the firm I'd been with since the conclusion of the bar exam four long years ago.  To be honest, it felt like any other Friday except that most Fridays I'm not cleaning out my desk and attending a farewell dinner.  I thought I'd be a bit more emotional about the whole thing--four years is a long time to be tied to anything--but I didn't get any pangs of sadness or anything as I shut down my computer and turned out the lights in my office for the last time.  

I suppose that says something about the job.  Or, at the very least, the state of my life the past four years.  Certainly a lot has changed during that time, but fundamentally I feel like I've been running in place that whole time.  You remember that scene in Garden State where Zach Braff is sitting still on the couch while the whole party is moving around him at a frenetic pace?  I feel like that.  Well, I felt like that.  Leaving work today left me feeling lighter--unshackled--and able to once again move at the proper pace.

I think a convenient way to look at life is as a book, and so it's safe to say that the end of this job signals the end of another chapter in my life.  A chapter burdened by the weight of circumstance and in which nothing of consequence happened to the protagonist.  My new job starts at the end of next month, so I'll have 30 days to . . . I'm not sure.  Part of that time will be spent moving and another part will be spent traveling.  The rest?  I suppose I'll spend it rediscovering some of the things that went abandoned these last four years.  In any case, it always feels good to turn the page; to start a new chapter.

--KM

"Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show."