Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of my life. Well….Duh. Of course it is.
I have been working more than full-time hours since I was 14. I finished school early and got a job working for a computer company in exchange for training on computers. This was waaaay back in the stone age when computers were kinda newfangled things :) I learned about networking, running cable, how to fix errors and customer service when users would call into the computer room with their many problems. In my opinion, a much better spent youth than prom, etc. But I worked or was learning all the time.
Then at 18 I got an entry-level job at a hedge fund. Ended up working for the Managing General Partner as his assistant, managing his personal life through 2 divorces and handling his personal finances along with learning trading commodities, the backroom mechanics of a trading room, HR/office management and then taking on the portfolio accounting of our various hedge funds. Again, a much better way to grow up than pledging a sorority and keg parties.
Then I helped my then boyfriend, turned fiancee (and then finally husband) co-found an internet start-up. Went through the ups and downs of the dot com boom and bust, made it through, kept the business alive and then it turned profitable and then finally we sold it in 2010 to a large (one of the largest?) Chinese companies. And we have another company now.
When we sold the company, I kept my FT job there. I think some people were surprised but it’s not like we made $20mil or something off the sale. But now, a year later, things are different. Plus during this same year, one of my beloved doggies got very sick and my little brother died. Then throw in my Dad being in a nursing home and a constant form of stress, plus then I broke my ankle which then caused a pinched nerve which has been a boatload amount of pain and suffering, and you have a girl who needs a break.
So a few weeks ago I told our new CEO that I want to go part-time. With the merger, parts of my job were given away to our parent company, and some just vanished over time all together as things were switched over. I still have plenty to do but certainly not like what I had before. And honestly, when you are working for yourself and have a small company where you know everyone and want everyone to be successful and happy, it is a LOT different than working for a big company and just having a job where all of a sudden there are office politics and crap that I have no patience for. I am not meant for the latter. At. All.
So today was my last day as a full-time employee. Hopefully for the rest of my life. I still have plenty of work to do for 2 companies. And I will go into the office 2 days per week. But now I can do some of my work while in my PJs on my sofa. Or after a long hike with the buds. Or whatever. Plus this means more time in Tahoe and I will be quite happy about that. As will the huskies! :) We just closed on a new house last Friday and will have tons of stuff to do for renovations. So I am not completely delusional about too much “free time”. But it will be nice to have a much more flexible schedule. This year has made me realize that I need to relax a bit more. Calm down. Stop stressing about things that simply are not worse the stress. Ferris Bueller was right. I have just not had this as an adult and I want to give it a try.
So today when I locked my office, loaded the huskies in the car and pulled away from the parking lot it was really, really weird. Can’t really explain the feeling. Sad. But happy. Melancholy. But content. I guess just weird.
But change is good.
