The Beginning of the End

Well, the secret is out. Today I finally told my boss that I'll be leaving Cerner in January, and I think it went pretty well. Nobody flipped out. Actually, it was kind of ironic...after a team meeting, I asked him if I could talk to him afterwards, and once everybody had left, he jokingly said, "Hmmm, this looks like bad news. When are you leaving?" Then I told him that I actually was leaving, to which he replied, "Dang! You're killing me!"

Afterwards, I felt kind of weird. I had expected that once I got the big secret out into the open, I would feel relieved, even liberated. Instead, I actually felt kind of guilty. I suppose that once I moved to Kansas City, my co-workers (associates in Cernerspeak) became, for better or for worse, part of my extended family. I mean, after spending at least 50 hours per week with them for the past year and a half, how could they not? Anyways, a little piece of me felt like I was letting them all down.

Of course, in the end, I know they'll all get by just fine. I know that I am making this decision for all the right reasons. And I know that when my plane touches down in Auckland, I sure as hell won't be wishing I was back in my cubicle.