Countdown

After an exceedingly long (and painful, anxiety-filled) gestational period, it looks like we're finally on the last stretch of this journey. Proposals are allegedly on the table, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nobody changes their mind last minute and throws a spanner in the works.

I've been waking in the mornings and dreading work, something I've never felt in all 17 years since joining the workforce. Not even when I was putting in 7-day work weeks (or maybe I just didn't have the mental capacity and time to feel dread then...).

In my eagerness to start a new chapter in my life, I started working on The List which I had started at the beginning of the year.

1. Language classes - Groupon vouchers for Japanese classes purchased. Some more research Bahasa Indonesian classes needed.
2. Fitness plan - yoga, swimming, cycling, some short spurts of running. Everything to get my fitness level up to par.
3. Life - sorting and organizing the chaos that had accumulated in my life because life, and so many other things, got in the way.
4. Skills - learning to cook with more confidence. Nothing fancy. Just being able to embark on every day meals without trepidation.

The initial plan is to take at least a three-month break. If I'm not bored by then, I guess we'll carry on living LIFE.

It's a bitter sweet feeling, knowing the end is coming. On the one hand, I'm relieved I don't have to put up with all the pain-in-the-ass people I have to work with, the back-stabbing politics, the secret-squirrel shenanigans. None of which was what I had signed up for, but had foisted on me with a change in leadership and direction. On the other hand, some of these colleagues have made this one of the best environments I've worked in my life.

These six years have been such an eye-opener into a different industry and work environment. People who don't take for granted when you put in extra hours and make sacrifices. People who aren't screaming at the top of their lungs when the going gets tough. People who drop their own work and roll up their sleeves to chip in and help when help is needed. I discovered a world much larger than the little piece of sky I saw from the bottom of the well. Like the proverbial soldiers who have stood side-by-side in battle, I'd like to say, I feel proud to have stood alongside people who have fought valiantly and with dignity to keep the dream alive.

Closing my eyes and taking a leap into the dark, I'm hoping to find myself landing firmly on my feet again, as I've had many times before.

"The sun'll come up tomorrow. Betcha bottom dollar that tomorrow, there'll be sun"!