The Notice

On Friday morning I sat at my desk, staring at three lines on my screen. Three little sentences, but important ones.
"I regret to inform you that..."
After half an hour of reviewing the carefuly picked words, I hit the send button and officially resigned my job.
It felt good. Really good in fact. A little daunting, I must admit, but I had waited for that moment for a very long time.
Minutes later a message announcing my impending departure was sent to our offices in New York and Washington. Suddenly my screen lit up with messages from old friends and colleagues in both cities, expressing their surprise and joy at the news and sending heartwarming wishes for good luck and success.
I'm not the emotional type, but the outpouring of support and encouragement was overwhelming and made the moment even more special.
My first commercial flight had better take place on a large plane since I've promised too many people a seat on the maiden voyage!
Later on in the day I met with my boss, who expressed sadness to see me go. I couldn't tell if he was sincere or whether that was the rehearsed parting speech, so I favored the former. We chatted for a while and I explained to him some of my reasons for leaving as well as my plans.
To my surprise he then asked me if I'd consider maintaining a relationship with the company on a freelance basis, which I accepted since I do want to remain in journalism somehow and am very likely to need the extra money.
So January 20th will be my last day at work. The following week, I'll try to spend as much time as possible with Jen before heading down to Manassas to begin training on the 30th.
Better get back to the books. My multi checkride is on Feb 9th...