This time last month, I left a law firm where I had worked for more than twenty-three years and embarked on a new adventure. Having been where I had been for as long as I had, I gave my former employer a month's notice. While it gave me sufficient time to make certain that the matters I had been handling were left in good shape for the attorney hired to take my place, by the time my final day at my old firm arrived I had run out of things to do.
It proved to be a good thing. Although my final day was Friday, January 29, by Tuesday of my final week, the Human Resources Manager reached out to me to inquire how long I was intending to stay on my last day. In these COVID-19 times in which we live, time was apparently needed to excise my presence from my space to make sure that my cooties did not infect its new occupant. Furthermore, the Firm wanted to get me off of its computer system so the IT folks could prepare for my replacement's arrival.
I kid you not.
So, not terribly long after I finished a telephonic status conference with Magistrate Goodman in United States District Court that Friday morning, I said goodbye to my secretary Lynn and my colleagues in my immediate vicinity and then...I was gone.
Down the back stairs, out the back door, into my car, and out of the parking lot forever. No memorable famous final scene. Just an understated fade to black. A reminder that while in our mind's eye each of us may be a celluloid hero, in the brick-and-mortar world where we live, we are mere mortals...
...and life goes on without us.
As it should.
-AK
Retiring myself after 26 and a half years at someplace I never intended to be at all, I can attest to the wisdom of Roger Daltrey's words, "Parting Should Be Painless." And as George Harrison observed, "life goes on within you and without you."
ReplyDeleteTo me, the important part is you kept your eyes on the horizon and continued to move towards it.
Exactly! One month in, all is well.
ReplyDelete