The End of an Era

extirpate - v. to destroy, exterminate, cut out

Today is officially my last day as a full-time advertising employee. It's really surreal to think that I won't be doing the same thing I have been doing day in and day out for the past 7+ years. Will I miss it? I'm sure there are parts of it I definitely will (particularly the aforementioned perks). And then there are the things I definitely won't miss. Every time I leave a job I tend to only remember the good things about it, but this isn't just leaving a job, it's leaving a career. Pretty scary/exciting stuff. Hopefully advertising will always be there as a fallback for me and I won't be completely extirpated from it.

Anyway, just some boring thoughts for my last day. In other career news, Kyle is switching departments at his job. Congratulations Kyle! Sometimes he worries that people judge him as a person by his career. Most of our friends have philanthropic, non-corporate type of jobs. It's great because we share that common concern for others, which is probably why we are friends, but I sort of see what Kyle means because I was that person that worked in corporate America for a long time. For whatever reason, people seem to think that what you do for al iving is a direct reflection of who you are as a person. Yes, sometimes it does reflect our interests, but just because Kyle works in finance doesn't mean that he is a greedy money whore. If Kyle could have survived his whole life working for non-profits, he would have done it, but unfortunately non-profit salaries don't quite cover your entire cost of living when you have student loan debt and car payments to worry about. Those of my friends who are lucky enough to have had their entire education paid for by their parents and received cars as graduation/birthday presents were more readily able to choose their jobs without having to take salary into consideration. I guess our goal one day would be to allow our kids to do the same. Ironically, I actually won't be making a huge amount less as a school counselor than I am in advertising. In fact, if I had been in school counseling for 7 years vs. media buying for 7 years I have a feeling I would actually be making more than I currently am making.

Sorry to be so boring today, Kyle and I downed a whole bottle of wine last night on our own and so I'm not quite feeling up to blogging par today.