Closure.

Cape Town, South Africa, 2007

It was recently my last day as an employee of a NYC-based international trade association that I hadn't even heard of before I started working for them. But this company became my life, providing me with new knowledge, experiences, friendships, support, growth, and a real family, professionally and quite literally in the end. We should all be so lucky as to have had the opportunities I had with them.

In the past 5 and a half years, I worked in New York, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Princeton, South Africa, Dubai, Miami, Toronto, Mexico, Chicago, Los Angeles, Prague, Philadelphia, Puerto Rico, Paris, Vancouver, Orlando, Berlin, Phoenix, Beijing and Shanghai. I went around the world and around my country for that job. I went on safari, rode bikes through Montmartre, danced in Prague, hiked the Great Wall, went clubbing in LA, toured a chocolate factory in Vancouver, ran through Tienanmen Square, shook hands with two Prime Ministers and countless other politicians and celebrities, and celebrated Eid al-Fitr in Dubai. And every one of these stories is more complicated and more interesting than it even seems here. And there are more- just ask sometime.

With Top Chef Jen Carroll and Mayor Nutter in Philadelphia, 2010

But aside from the fun and adventure, personally it has been a half decade of tremendous change in my personal life, and in many cases the people that I worked for, their spouses, children, and support staff have become my best friends I have ever had, whether they knew it or not. Not having much time outside of work and in recent years taking care of my daughter as a single mom in New York, my colleagues and "my charges" were my only support system. They are the reason that I made it through the biggest challenges of my life and came out on the other side a stronger person with a better sense of who I was. I have laughed harder and more often with this group than any other in my life. I have cried with them and mourned with them and missed the ones that we have lost as if they were my own family. There were days when the brightest spot was a phone call or an email from someone needing information, a favor, some gossip, or a listening ear. I loved being able to help them. Helping them helped me.

I never lost sight of how lucky I was.

Biking through Paris, 2011

In this time I had 2 different last names, went from a pixie cut to long "Dallas hair," had a perfect pregnancy and gave birth to a beautiful daughter, went through a divorce, and then fell head over heels in love and got engaged to a man who was a part of this group. I moved from Upper East Side Manhattan to Astoria to a little apartment by La Guardia in East Elmurst to Uptown Dallas Texas. I had three different desks in that office on the 48th floor of 1221 Avenue of the Americas, but spent most of my time at one from which I could look down at Radio City Music Hall and 30 Rockefeller Center whenever I needed to remind myself how lucky I was, regardless of everything else that was going on in my crazy life.

But my job and the people I worked for- they were my constant. Whether they knew it or not, they were my life; my family. Even if our only interaction had been a mass email from me every few months, every one of them was on my mind and in my heart every day. They will always be there.

I was writing them all a good-bye letter and got so choked up I had to walk away from my desk. I wrote stream of consciousness style at first, but then went back and deleted anything that was too emotional with the intention of leaving on a more professional note. I saved some of the more emotional parts for this posting, still needing to get it out.

Orlando, 2012

It is thrilling to start a new chapter in my life but as I am still not quite sure what I will be doing, it is terrifying too. I have so many interests and my skills are so varied that I'm certain I won't be able to find a new position that fulfills me to the point that this last one did. But nothing is impossible. I am getting some freelance work here in Dallas as an event planner, a writer, and a publicist, and maybe I will just create something for myself in true Renaissance Woman fashion. It's all a big mystery but at least I know that for a very dramatic period of my life, from the ages of 28 to 33, I was a very lucky woman to have known the people that I have and to have had the experiences that I did. And I am so grateful.