Today is a different kind of day, a mark on history that will stand out. Today is the last day in the office. Not mine, but my boss’s. Curiously, it feels like my last day too. The office he’s occupied since I first began here is empty now, and the feeling is difficult to describe.
He was a founding member of my organization, though he began as a mere project manager like myself and worked his way up to director level. His departure announcement shocked everyone. Everyone expected him to take the place over when our executive director retires (late 60s now), and that would have been great. But he preempted that possibility by taking another job in town, his first outside the academy in his whole life.
It’s been a complicated week with everyone trying to work as usual while knowing the entire place is going to be very different without him there. In my own office suite, there is no longer any senior management present. We manage ourselves, and for the short term, that’s what it will be like.
I would like to say some things to him but haven’t found the space or words. He’s been a great coworker and I’ve learned more from him than any other– my own vocabularies in this field have largely come from him, and the way I approach the subject is heavily influenced by what I’ve learned and gleamed from him.
Tonight there’s a going away party at school here, and then a dinner with some of us afterward, and I’m really looking forward to it. I haven’t decided if I’ll speak at the going away party yet.
Tomorrow will be a work morning and day for me, and then I need to get to a wedding in Flushing, my second one there, interestingly it’ll be at the same venue as the last one, and my date will also be the same. That should be pretty fun. Sunday I’m going to our executive director’s house to talk about my work and watch a football game. Some others will be there, too.
I have lots to reflect on and need to make time to do so– some of these passing events are bigger and more important than I’m letting myself realize. And oh how many times has this happened…
