The End

Last Monday morning, I dragged my jet lagged butt into the office around 9:30am and promptly felt depressed. Not because I had left the love of my life behind in Germany or because I was crashing from post-vacation euphoria. No, I was depressed because at 9:30am, I was the first one to arrive at work on the 8th floor. That's never happened before.

KA, who used to sit in the cube next to me and who I'd seen every morning without fail for the past year (he's super punctual and thus was always at work before me), is gone, having left the previous week for another Senate office. DB is gone, AT is gone, AH's last day was this past Friday, BB's last day will be November 5th. The office is slowly becoming a ghost town, as drawers are emptied of their files and my coworkers depart for greener pastures.

Actually, the greener pastures part isn't true. None of us wanted to leave our jobs. We didn't want to be seeking "bigger and better" things right now. We loved the office and the work we did and given the choice, we'd all be campaigning furiously for our boss up until Election Day. But life didn't work out that way and we've all been forced to move on. Change is good, but most people like to do it on their own terms, and it's difficult when you're not quite ready for a good thing to end.

We're at the end of an era. Not that I hadn't realized this before, but it's becoming more real--painfully so--every day. A 30-year career abruptly terminated by anti-incumbency sentiment and populist frustration, and my all-too-short tenure with the Senator drawing to a close. So where to now? Am still trying to figure that out...hopefully I'll have an answer for you soon.