Sunset

From the week before Memorial Day to the week before Labor Day my company operates on summer hours, which means HALF DAY FRIDAYS!!! Today I left work at noon just like I would on any other half day Friday. However, this Friday is different.  Unlike before, I will not be going back to work on Monday.  I won't be  going back on Tuesday or any other day.  This half day Friday was my last one with the company I have been with since I graduated college in 2002. I turned in my company car, handed over my laptop, and left my office keys on the desk.  I am officially done.

Although I officially gave notice in February, I mentally quit my job the day Kellogg called to admit me (December 13, 2011 at 4:05 p.m. EST).  At that moment I knew that no matter what happened in Round 2, I was going to business school.  After years of saying that I wanted to move on I finally had something concrete to move onto.  To say that I was jubilant would be an understatement.  From that day on the countdown to (f)unemployment was on.

For months I regularly updated my facebook status with the months, weeks, days, and hours until I would be free from "the tyranny of employment."  Back in February this day felt like one that would never come, but this week it finally hit me that that I was really leaving my job.  A certain sadness has followed me all week.  Even though I have long since tired of waking up before 7 to fight traffic for nearly 45 minutes on my way to 8-10 hours of meetings about meetings, spreadsheets, and conference calls, it's been the only life I've known for almost ten years.  To be honest, it's been a pretty good life.  I was able to purchase my first home because of my employer (and unload it without a loss too), get elite status on Delta airlines, work with some fantastic people, and make some wonderful friends too.  Most of all because of my company I was able to gain admission to some of the best business schools around.  I know that some people would like to attribute my admissions success this past application season solely to my abundance of melanin and possession of ovaries.  However I think that it had a lot more to do that I had kick ass experience at a leading CPG company that not only sends dozens of people to top schools every year but hires a lot of their students for marketing, finance, etc. too. I will forever be grateful to have their name on my resume and for everything I learned while there.

For the first time in my adult life I do not have a job.  So now as I laze around my sorority sister's home, surrounded by my suitcases and boxes, I have come to the sobering realization that I am unemployed, homeless, and without access to a car.  #Winning