Leaving the Familiar
Recently I left everything I knew and moved to Florida, leaving all the people who knew me, and the things I held dear. I left friends and enemies behind at the UPS in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Whatever the relationship we had, when it came time for me to leave I felt a sense of longing. I wanted a different date and time, to go back and change the things that had shaped our relationship to what it was or fix what it lacked.
No matter how I felt about them as I left I look back now and long for all of the things I never realized they brought to my life. The diverse group of people I worked with were my closest friends, as well as biggest enemies. We fought over trivial ideas, as well as important changes. They laughed when my lunch was stolen by a high school student as a joke, and cried with me when I lost a close friend. Through thick and thin they held me up and made me a better person. The day I left is a vivid memory, I gave the daily Pre Communication Meeting or PCM, and reminded them to play with heart, laugh at yourself, and listen to each other. I barely made it through my three minute speech without crying. I was leaving my family, the best friends I’d ever had.
I thought the toughest part of my day would be over once I made it through my speech and hit the work floor. I was in for a surprise; it only got harder from there. The mission was to get out of work quickly and unnoticed. Almost four hours later I had finally said goodbye to all the people at UPS, the ones that worked with me, worked for me or I worked for. Saying goodbye to my full-time supervisors was the most difficult, they had so many well wishes, and good things to say. It made me sad to leave a place that I had called home for over four years.
As I look back at past month and the move, I long for one more night with the gang, just to relax and talk about work, school and life. I have a new UPS family now, they are different and we’re still in the adjusting phase, but I know that I will never have family like the one I left behind.
I called my old job the other day, and it was like calling home for the first time from summer camp. You want someone familiar on the other end, but you don’t want to look like you miss your parents too badly. I will be the first one to admit, I do miss my family at work. Moving and leaving those you care for makes you realize all the good things you had but never thought to mention. I can’t wait to visit Michigan in May so I can tell everyone how much they mean to me, and how much I miss working with them.
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