Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Independence Day

Friday, July 21st has gone down in my history as the day I resigned from Verizon Business. Thesuarus.com lists abandonment, abdication, departure, giving up, leaving, notice, quitting, renunciation, retirement, surrender, tendering, termination, vacating, and withdrawal as synonyms for resignation. I like to think I am vacating IT in order to be happy and to try something new. Over the last couple of years I have lost the feeling of fulfillment in my job. There hasn’t been any single catastrophic event that changed my overall view of network engineering it has been more of a snowball rolling downhill effect. During my eight year stint in the US Army I learned how important it was to feel satisfied. The Army wasn’t always fun but it was always worthwhile. I want to feel like I’m making a difference. I want to contribute to a common goal that doesn’t always serve the purpose of making money, or making sure someone is connected in order to make money. I want to help people again.

I cannot remember the first time Kate told me to quit my job and go to school but I do remember she said it over and over before I finally realized she was serious. We debated several different scenarios in the last year. First there was opening a new business, Kate going to school, me going to school, moving, staying in Tech jobs and about 50 other ideas. It has been a whirlwind, but we finally decided that it made more sense for me to go to school full time and exhaust my GI Bill benefits before they expire.

Our life is changing because of love. I realize we are very fortunate to be able to make this change. I am so lucky to have found Kate, I can’t imagine my life without her in it. I often struggle to find the words to describe my wife. She is an incredibly talented author (although she doesn’t believe it when I tell her that). She is smart, beautiful, compassionate, a great chef, my best friend. I love to say this one, she is my wife.

I will finish my AA degree in December and then we’re off to Nursing School (location undetermined at this time).

1 comment:

Jon said...

Firing my job. Very interesting way to put it! I will miss working with you also, it really has been a pleasure getting to know you. I look forward to hanging out in the future. Swing by the house, we'll have tomatoes and beers!