Picture this: You are seated at your desk, the one you have called your office for a couple good number of years. 3 feet in front of you and to your left is a temporary partition separating your space from those of your two neighbors. One foot behind you is a concrete wall and four or so feet to your right is another half wood and half glass partition marking the boundary between your space and the third neighbor. In this space, you have experienced a lot both within and outside (remotely) of it. The walls have defined your jurisdiction for a while, but you are now reminiscing because two days from now, you will be exploring life beyond these walls, hopefully for a fuller and richer experience.
Your employer of 10+ years will from August 1st be only part of your CV and that thought is sometimes unsettling.
The feeling is un-definable but can be summarized as the kind one has leaving primary school after finishing the final exam and preparing to join form1 in high school. There is a sense in which you have been a master of the passing phase, graduated and qualified for the next, but also anxious about the relearning in the next phase. Picture a senior boy in primary school who could even have been a head boy, but upon entry into form 1 they have to learn the ropes for life in the new school, so much so even to be shown where the washrooms are located.
You can identify with the Israelites as they left Egypt. On one part, they are excited about the thought of leaving the old life behind, but also jittery about the unknown life ahead. There is one assurance however you can choose to borrow from their experience:
21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:
22 He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. (Exodus 13)
That is my situation. ‘looking forward to the adventure outside these kind of walls….
Did you leave these kind of walls before me? Any thoughts/experiences?