The post below was one I wrote before leaving San Antonio, but never got around to posting. I’m not sure why. I’ve now been gone for about 1.5 months but figured I’d put it up because, well, it’s already written and doesn’t take too much effort at this point! :)
Goodbyes are inevitable. Some are purely painful. Some are truly welcome. Most are a mixture. I’m saying goodbye to another city. I’ve been in this boat before. I had to say goodbye to West Jordan and Melbourne and Logan and….
The part of goodbyes that hurt are the people. I cried until I hiccuped when I said goodbye to my Milwaukee friends. I got misty eyed when I said goodbye to friends last year who moved on to the next stage of their medical training. I now say goodbye to this place that has been my home for the last 4 years. 4 years of concentrated life, work, living and learning. I think that these are 4 years that changed me more like 24 years. I say goodbye to the places, people, sites, sounds (and temperature) that are my new “comfort zone” and start again in a place where I don’t know most people. Where I’m learning the work styles of new bosses and coworkers. A new ward. A new group of peers...
There are some constants. There will be those from San Antonio that I remain in contact with. But it will be different. It always is.
Perhaps these times are essential for progression. I’d bet I felt something similar (on a much larger scale) when I left that first estate to begin in this second one. There is a knowledge of the importance of the transition, excitement of the unknown (and some fear of it as well). A healthy amount of uncertainty about my ability to adapt and perform. And an optimism for the future.
In some ways goodbyes come too soon, and in other ways not soon enough.
