Semisonic Got It Right

 

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“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”

 

The closer I get to leaving, the more and more truth I find in this particular lyric from Semisonic’s song “Closing Time”. Something has to end for something else to begin. It’s like reading a good novel – no matter how much you like the chapter you’re reading, in order for the story to continue, you have to move onto the next.

 

The beginning, in this case, is (obviously) The World Race. The end is Auto Safety House. Today, that end became reality. The theoretical of the last eight months became solid fact. And this completely insane and amazing beginning just took a giant leap towards the same status.

 

I would love to say that today was just another notch up the percentage ladder towards readiness, but I can’t. Thank goodness my departure isn’t completely dependent upon how I feel, because today is one of those days where I am not so much loving the idea of what this leaving thing means for the relationships I’ve developed with the people I worked with these last sixteen months. I know my inclinations. I know how much trouble I have maintaining relationships with friends and family members. Throw co-workers in the mix, and it’s a disaster waiting to happen, I suppose.

 

Maybe that makes me not very good at closing things out, but that’s a blog for another time (quite literally… as soon as I found the journal I wrote it in, that blog will get posted).

 

What I know for certain is that today was my last day in a ‘real job’. I know that on January 3rd, I’ll be boarding a plane bound for New Zealand. I know that this marks the end of an era.

 

And as I hold onto my boarding pass for the shuttle taking me down to Tucson this weekend, I know the adventure is just beginning.