I started this year with a big change, the only change that I thought possible this year. I moved into a new home with my boyfriend. A house that would be ours. To create new memories. A new chapter. It was to be the start of the rest of our lives together and still is.
But it appears that the world of change was not done with me yet.
I have worked for the same company since I was 18 years old. Over 25 years ago, over half of my life. I grew into an adult with that firm. They saw the many stages in my life, the way that I grew and the various iterations of the person that I would eventually become.
People came and people went over the years, but generally it was a firm that people stayed with and some I have known for as long as I have been there.
But as everything does, things changed; certainly over the past couple of years. The firm was bought out and the company that I knew, changed. The soul of the firm was different. Everyone feels it. Suddenly, the thought of working elsewhere crossed my mind.
It was not just the change of the guard, it was other things too. The person I had worked with for so longer was coming towards retiring. I had moved departments with him a few years ago and the cases that we now deal with are traumatic. The type that you take home at night. That torment you.
Last week I was approached by another firm, offering me a new job. A new department, more money and a security that I felt was slipping away at my current firm. At my age, an opportunity that I could not ignore.
So I went for an interview.
Without telling you what I do, I can tell you that people who want to do, actually do, my job are rare. They don't want to be that busy. They see it as a stepping stone. They see it as something that you move on from.
I am a lifer when it comes to what I do. I am good at it and I enjoy it. My aspirations in life are work to live, not live to work. This is rare in my field. As such, finding someone like me who wants to stay and commit is rare. Sought after. Something I didn't actually understand, until I went to the interview.
I was offered the job.
Yesterday, after much deliberation, soul searching and a lot of worry, I decided to accept and handed my notice in.
Is it the right decision? For me, now, yes. Will it be the right decision in the long run? I hope so. Only time will tell. What finally clinched my decision however was the realisation that if this new job went south, would I want to go back to my current job and the answer was no.
I have loved my current job and moving away from it will be hard and strange and new. But I have changed so much over the years. I have grown and the person who started at the firm all those years ago is not me anymore. I am ready for a new challenge.
Another new chapter. That is two this year. Wish me luck!