Thoughts on my last day of work

Its lunch time on my last day of work. My housemates have all moved out, and I hop on airplane home tomorrow at 2.

I have a few random and disconnected musings to share today. I have been cleaning out my desk and all of that, but even more I've been getting my space ready for the new intern. Making sure she has all the numbers, blank disks, papers, and fax cover sheets she needs. This is kind of fun project. It makes me thing about what I use, and what is helpful to know. Hopefully she finds my organizational system and some of my notes helpful.

This morning was a bit wild, tonight is a full moon and I honestly think that my have something to do with it. Some of the participants we dealt with this morning were challenging to say the least. A good note to go out on, I guess. Other things of note, yesterday I had my last computer mentoring session. Good luck, and I hope there are now a few more people in the world who know how to check their email without me. Additionally this week I have provided participants with correct spellings for the words "application," "Massachusetts," and "piercing." Not all for the same person or purpose, luckily. Sample conversation: "No, I don't think the word 'stipend' has a 'F' in it." "Are you sure?" "Pretty sure." I also decided this morning that I want my next job to be one where people don't pee with the bathroom door open. Small but important requirement in employment, I think.
I've said goodbye to my roommates of 11 months. We had a lot of fun together, and been there for a lot of highs and lows. As a part of our last retreat, we were asked to tell the members of the volunteer corps board what the most challenging and the most rewarding parts of our jobs are. And I was struck by the difficulty of our jobs. We are not any normal 5 young people sharing a house straight out of college. No one is working at Starbucks. Instead we have jobs where we are a very important part of our agencies. And between the five of us we cover everything from homelessness to child abuse, and delinquent youths. Not easy. Defiantly not like working in the library at school. And while of course I understood this on some level the whole time, I really was hit by the enormity of it just a few weeks ago.

Another odd side effect of moving across the country with no plan to return any time soon is that people keep telling me to "have a good life." I appreciate the sentiment, but that sounds so scary and final. I've been alone in my house for a few days, which is odd and kind of lonely. I'm almost completely packed, which is a good feeling. Tonight after work I'm going out with my supervisor and the two other year long interns and that should be fun. And tomorrow I leave our nations capital. Its been good run. But I can't wait to get home!