Yesterday was my last day of work.
A month ago, on Dec 1, 2017, I submitted my resignation letter after nearly seven years. Over the course of that time, my life and truth-be-told, my personal identity had revolved around my work, my job function and working for a multinational company on the top Fortune-500 listing. In the very early days, I truly believed it was just my luck to find the job, and that I would never leave. Heck, my colleagues and mentors at work also told me on numerous occasions that I was a veteran that was never going to leave. I believed them.
Looking back today, I cannot say the reason I left was that I was being mistreated. In fact, I mostly enjoyed working with the people I worked with. In the early days, I did feel like I was connected to a purpose, bigger than myself. At that time I worked in recruiting, and we were very much in a growth era. I was actively involved in sourcing talents across all Anglophone and Francophone West Africa. Those were the glory days. We very quickly advanced to hitting the peak at the company, and my days were now spent navigating a crazy and irritating matrix; dealing with the bureaucracy that extended all the way to Headquarters, and even having to fire the same people I hired a number of years ago from the company. There was just no soul for me any longer. I was just coasting; going through the motions. Though on the outside, everything seemed fine, it took a health scare to force me to take a long, hard look at myself, and challenge myself to live out loud, and in colour.
So, I quit! I said goodbye to everything I knew and was comfortable with. Every single thing! As I lie here, writing up this post, though feeling very emotional, I know deep down that I did the right thing. Work for me is like that old friend you have grown apart from, but you are sad to walk away from because of all the memories you have with them; because of how your identity has been shaped by that friendship, especially when the relationship looks amazing on the surface. My tears flow freely now as any breaking away from the familiar is wont to cause.
The time has come to begin the next chapter of my life.
I am at Peace…
