Today I start a new chapter in my life.
I worked my last day at Sonoma State University and will retire on July 4th -Independence Day after my vacation time runs out.
I have been on the SSU campus for nearly 20 years. I was a student from 8/90-5/93 earning a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. I continued working at Safeway for 10 more years before returning to SSU as a member of the bookstore staff. I worked for 3 years at the bookstore until I was transferred to the dining services. I stayed in the dining services office until I was transferred again after 5 years. My last position was with the conferences and events service. I scheduled all of the student events for almost 8 years. I have worked in 6 different offices in 16 years.
What have I learned in these 16 years was that I really was never cut out to work inside an office. The last one was absolutely the worst space. I was inside a building on the second floor, inside an office, back in the corner, trapped in a cube with no natural light, No window, and no foot traffic. I literally was isolated, spending the majority of the time doing data entry on a computer.
How wonderful today is knowing that I will never have to work inside doing that type of work ever again! I am very grateful for everything that working at SSU provided for me and my kids. I will be enjoying a nice monthly pension and health care for the rest of my life! Thank you! I am also grateful and happy to have worked with some amazing people that I will continue to call my friends. I especially loved the students and watching them during my time.
At this point, I hope that I will never have to work a conventional job like that again.
What do I want to do?
I want to see new and interesting places. My fiance Larry and I bought a 2005 Airstream Safari and will be setting out mid-September to explore Canada, The United States and Mexico. Our trip should last about 8 months and will start from Larry’s hometown of Hague, Saskatchewan, Canada. We will head west through Canada until we hit the coast and then south for a while. We will eventually make it back to Canada in the late spring. We want to visit friends and family along the way. We plan on staying at National parks and seeing as many beautiful sights as we can. We will be stopping in towns to sell my book at farmers' markets and meet the local folk. I would like to continue my volunteer work. Perhaps doing events in the places we stop. I am hoping to meet friendly and interesting people in our travels. I’m super excited about our future and the adventures we will have. I have such an overwhelming sense of freedom and cannot wait to take to the open road!
Yesterday was a perfect last day. I saw lots of friends that congratulated me and were genuinely happy for me. I have left any unhappiness I had for that job, that office, that cube when I drove away at 4:30 pm on 6/25/19.
I am ready to drive in a whole new direction in the future with my love Larry!