Farewell, But Not Good Bye.

Friday is the last day that I am working at St.  Anthony Foundation.

I keep repeating that thinking maybe it will sink it, but so far it hasn’t.  Maybe if I were nagged about leaving, or given guilt trips it would feel more like a reality.  But, true to form, my colleagues have been nothing but supportive about my move onward to a new position.

Perhaps when I’m walking to work on my first day and don’t hear the shout outs and good mornings lining my path, as if the walk up to Golden Gate were my own personal stadium tunnel and I was on my way to play in the championship game, perhaps then it will sink in.  Maybe when lunchtime rolls around and there is no Dining Room menu to ponder, when the table I sit at is not surrounded by staff and volunteers who are all dedicated to this earnest and fundamental mission, who know we are lucky enough to share in this meal along with so many others who rely it. Perhaps then it will feel real.

St. Anthony’s has been more than employment. It has been a life-changing and perspective-altering experience.  It has not just built my resume, it has built my character.  Leaving, I feel akin to clients in programs who have moved along to the next step, and know that I am welcome back, but am saddened that I won’t see the smiling and supportive faces of the people who have helped me arrive at this point in life on a regular basis.

This organization truly and deeply cares about the whole of each person who enters its doors.  I have never been so acutely aware of the trials, triumphs and underlying vulnerable humanity in each person as I have been here.  And that will carry on with me wherever I go.

Everyone has that first job they look back on that changed, reaffirmed or otherwise set them on the right path.  I am lucky, grateful and honored that St. Anthony’s is that part of my personal history.