Let me start by apologising to Sir Elton John for mutilating the title of his famous song (Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word), however I do disagree with him on this. I have always found it easier to apologise and say ‘Sorry’, but I have always struggled with the dreaded ‘G’ word – ‘Goodbye’.
I am not referring to the ‘See you tomorrow’ kind of goodbyes though, I am referring to the ‘So long, thanks for the memories’ (To steal lyrics from Fall out boy now) kind of goodbyes. Having a dad whose job had us moving around a lot, I have unfortunately said more than my fair share of goodbyes, and I always found it really hard saying that to friends. Before the internet really caught on, it meant making promises to write letters, but lets face it as kids how many of us have actually followed through with such promises? I was definitely not good at it. Once the internet became more commonplace, it became a lot easier to keep in touch, but that did not make goodbyes any easier.
Until now however I had always considered my move to Sydney as being one of the hardest, because for the first time in my life I was not only saying goodbye to my friends, I was also having to say goodbye to my family! I have now been here about 6 years (the longest I have ever been in one place), and I thought that I was finally done dealing with the Goodbye monster. How wrong could I have been?
Recently , I had to use the dreaded G word again, and it was still as hard as I last remembered.
A few days ago I told my employers of over two years that I would be resigning soon. This was my first full time employment after graduating from university, and I had met and become friends with some amazing people while working here. As such, I was expecting the announcement to be difficult; but no where near as hard as it ultimately turned out to be. I’m not sure if it is the fact that even though I am excited to be starting at a new place, I am dreading the reality, that very soon I am not going to be seeing my friends every morning.
I can only hope that the fabulous relationships that I have here are maintained (at least to some degree) after the move, but I guess this is something only time will tell.
Goodbyes are hard; but is leaving a job always this hard, or is this something that gets easier with time?
