Transition

The journey leading up to this career change has not been without its bumps in the road. It’s a pretty big deal to leave a job after fifteen years, even for someone as resilient as me. For example, today I got pretty emotional at work. I was having lunch with my friends, just like I do most days, when all of a sudden I realized that I am really, really going to miss my paycheques. It started to sink in that I’ve grown to depend on them for almost everything. From the routine to the rare, they’ve been there to help me through the best and the worst.

For example, in 2006, my paycheque helped get me two tickets to the Men’s World Cup Soccer final in Berlin Germany. There’s no way I would have been able to get those tickets on my own. In fact it wasn’t just the finals, the whole tournament was a blast – visiting all those different cities, watching all those different games. This trip really earned its moniker “Greatest Time Ever” (TM). And none of this would have happened without my salaried paycheque.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are the not-so-fond memories. In the summer of 2004 I was in the middle of this huge renovation project and during a supply run I broke the transaxle on my father’s 1992 Ford Ranger pickup truck. I was desperate. I had a student moving into an unfinished room in less than a week and the walls weren’t even up. With nowhere else to turn, my paycheque was there for me. It paid for a mechanic to make the necessary repairs and within 48 hours the truck was back operating at 100% capacity.

I could write for pages with additional examples but I’m not going to. Because even though I understand that I’m going to be ok without my paycheques, I also know that deep down in my heart I’m going to miss them dearly.

My first ever paycheque got me this.