Eight years, that’s how long I was there. I had just graduated college and moved in with Management when I began with the company as a fixed assets analyst–a truly glorious title for an individual whose purpose is to keep track how many chairs, desks, and filing cabinets a company has purchased. I was excited as this was my first job that did not entail lifting, carrying, cutting, welding, machining, or the wearing of steel-toed boots. With the job came more money and we were now able to afford a bed–sleeping on an air mattress for several months was beginning to impact our fledgling engagement–as well as purchase a television and subscribe to cable. We had arrived.

Those years saw our wedding, my starting and finishing graduate school, three apartments, our first home, and our first child. We have had four cats, well five if you count the rescue we had for one tortuous week, a dog, twenty or so fish, countless houseplants, and only one real vacation: our honeymoon. On the job, I became a project coordinator then project manager, which evolved into an Access developer position. When the department I was originally hired into reorganized I found myself in IT as an application and database developer and after the company began downsizing it was a struggle to hold onto my job as a helpdesk support technician and occasional systems administrator, a job I performed for most of my career with them.

It was that position within IT that fueled my love for Microsoft and which, after time, permanently soured me on them and their products. It was on that job that I was given the time to explore Open Source and to foster my devotion for “Free as in speech” software. My general malaise with my daily routine pushed me to design and develop networks and service architectures at home and to pick up side jobs with my meager skills. Without that job, or the good friend who believed in me enough to get me hired, as well as the understanding flexibility of my former boss I would not be walking into my new position as a network administrator tomorrow.

I am thankful for those years. Each one has taught me something about people, life, and myself and it will be odd to awake next morning and not drive those same streets, to sit in that same chair, and have the same conversation about setting print areas in Excel. Yet for all its strangeness it will be exhilarating to see what tomorrow and the next day bring, especially since there will be no office, no hours, no face time. Rather, I will be judged on merit and ability. I look forward to see how my life grows and changes in these years to come.