End of a Chapter: Last Day at Work

Last week saw my last day at my job after 10 years of service.  As you can imagine I had mixed feelings.  I leave behind some wonderful people, some who I count as friends, others who I have a lot of respect or and have learned so much from and others still who I consider mentors and people who opened doors for me or believed me to be capable enough to act as advocates of a kind for me.

I leave behind ten years of knowledge and experience I built up of the organisation and the chance to be part of the story as the organisation goes through significant change.

At the same time I am grateful and excited for a new opportunity and a new job.  Often starting a new job feels like starting all over again: proving yourself to be capable, building up your knowledge, convincing people about what you can do and building new networks.  But this time feels different.  I feel like I am taking my knowledge and experience with me.  The last two years of work have been challenging ones for me, but the challenge brought exponential growth in so many areas of skill and even character – I outlasted numerous people walking out because they couldn’t handle the work environment.

So this time I don’t feel like I am starting again.  I feel like I am bringing everything I have learned and done with me so that I can build on it insh’Allah.  The only thing I will miss will be working by the London Docks and my beautiful daily walks along the waterways.  Instead I am looking forward to making new friends and finding interesting new walks.

For my last day, instead of the usual leaving drinks (because I don’t drink…), I invited people to a pot luck lunch.  I brought in samosa’s, spring rolls, kebabs and roast chicken and a lovely friend brought in lots of pizza and cake.  I had friends from across the organisation come to with me well and even some that had left come back to see me off.

I took great pleasure in writing my good bye e-mail, I cleared my desk and made sure all my work was finished or handed over and I switched on my forever out-of-office.  I wished my colleagues goodbye and promised to keep in touch, I will e-mail them on the first day of my new job and let them know they are welcome to get in touch whenever they need to.