This is officially my last week of work. I will be “at work” more often this week than I was last week (when I showed up for a pot luck), but not much more. Today I met with my boss to go over the final transition plan, and Friday morning I’ll be going in for bagels and to turn in my badge, keys, credit card and remote access key fob. Plus, I’ll officially say goodbye to everyone that day.

Goodbyes will be hard. Any time I have left a job, the hardest part has always been leaving the people. I have been blessed to work with a great group of people, and I will miss them.

At the same time I am looking forward to the official end of my position, of not feeling like I should be checking my email and being held in the past while I am trying to work on my future. I have accepted that this is the path I am on and I am ready to fully embrace it.

In addition to the actual work items this week, I spent this morning in a training session with the career counseling company that is part of my severance package. I have to work on my resume this evening and go back for another full day session tomorrow. Then on Friday, I go in again to meet with my assigned career coach.

I am not exactly certain how much I am going to get out of the training sessions, but I figure it never hurts to have a professional help me with my resume and job search. I am being picky about where I apply for jobs, so perhaps some training on how to really target companies that I want to work for will be really useful for me.

I considered not going through the transition counseling, but I might as well take advantage of all the benefits my (former) company is offering. It certainly is not going to hurt my chances of getting a new job to go through this training and coaching, and it may very well help tremendously.

On some level, I have felt busier last week and this week than I’ve felt at work in a long time. I think that’s because right now, I am working specifically on my future, being active about what I want to do and seeking new challenges, instead of going into the office and dong the same old same old every day. I love being challenged, and the routine nature my job had gotten into would have had me actively looking for new work this summer regardless.

At least this way, I get unemployment, severance, and career counseling while I make looking for the right new job my primary goal, instead of having to fit it in around doing other work.

So yeah, it’s my last week of work for now. And I am ready for the new adventure to begin.