Ah, So There's the Hype

In my last blog post, I noted that there was little fanfare as I finished the last requirements of my degree. Fast forward through a week and a half of strawberry picking, roller coaster riding, running along the beach and partying like I'm in a Freddy Prinze Jr. movie to TODAY, and I got my fanfare.

My parents flew in all the way from Edmonton, Canada to join me in the graduation festivities weekend, and it has certainly been a busy weekend filled with receptions, pig roasts and, appropriately, a visit to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Today was the BIG day, in which I attended not just one, but two, graduation ceremonies - the "final exercises" on the UVA Lawn and the ceremony on the Darden grounds where I actually received my degree.

And so, with that, this chapter of my life ends. I tried to avoid goodbyes today, feeling fortunate that I could pinpoint times that I will see most of my good friends here again in the near future. I've been so honoured to have my parents in town, AND to have had family watching from across the continent (well, from Canada, more accurately) on the Darden stream as I was "conferred" my degree.

Today officially marks the beginning of my three month vacation and I'm excited about heading back to the Outer Banks tomorrow to kick off my summer travels and spend some time with my parents.

Congratulations to all my fellow graduates - I am truly honoured to be a part of the Darden Class of 2011.

And With That, a Chapter is Closed

Tonight, a whole bunch of my friends gathered at my parents' house to wish me a happy birthday and say goodbye (or, rather, "see you at Christmas!"). It is such a blessing to leave a place when you know you will be missed. Some goodbyes are harder than others, but with the webcam my parents gave me, hopefully the face-to-face chats will be much easier. One of my best friends got teary, but her boyfriend promised to hook her up with me on Skype so we can still talk.

This blog post has been a long time coming. My journey to the MBA program started about two years ago when I started considering all the options. It was almost six months ago, to the day, that I got that phone call from the Darden admissions office. The past six months have been filled with anxiety and excitement, and now my Acura is packed and I am pretty much ready to go. It was definitely an interesting day as I realized I couldn't take everything with me, but my dad's resourcefulness with some garbage bags and a vacuum saved the day and I got everything that I didn't want to have to replace into the trunk. My sisters and I will definitely be squished on the drive down, but that's life! If you're the praying kind, please pray that the border guard will not want to open the trunk on Monday since I really doubt I will be able to get it all back in if asked to unpack.

This will be my last blog posting from Edmonton. Tomorrow at 8 a.m., my sisters and I will squish into my car with our overnight bags and drive to Winnipeg. From there, we drive to Sioux City, Iowa, then to Louisville, Kentucky and finally arrive in Charlottesville, Virginia on Wednesday.

Triumph: No Tears

If I stopped to think about it, this past week would have been quite emotional. Instead, I planned a big goodbye/birthday party in a few weeks to stave off all the sad goodbyes and got to enjoy these last few evenings hanging out with friends. I very nearly got choked up at work when one of my co-workers (lovingly) said, "I still hate you for leaving," then gave me a big hug. I think one of the huge privileges of my (now old) job was that I got to work in so many areas, and I was given licence to really change things. A lot of times, when you are working in the day-to-day toil of a job, you don't take the time to step back and look at the big picture of what you have accomplished. But reading the messages in the goodbye cards was really encouraging. If only there was a way that I could just slip that in with my resume come internship-hunting time...

Of course, I got another kind of goodbye card. This one was filled with woman jokes, but all in good fun, of course. My favourite part was that on the front it said "To Julie, From Anonomys." After that, there were a few references to the subpar intelligence of females. ;-) (And if you do happen to read this, you-know-who-you-are, I do not think YOUR intelligence is subpar, just that your grammar is.)

The day ended with two very positive notes. One is that I got to say a "hello" for the first time all week and hang out with my friend who just got back from travelling in Europe for over three months. The second is that I got to chat with my sister who was gone all week doing soccer camps.

Another Patio and a Fond Farewell

The weather in Edmonton has been cooperating lately, so I spent a lovely evening with a friend on the Chili's rooftop patio on Whyte Ave, finally giving in to the craving for an Appletini. See, in Canada, as I mentioned earlier, we have approximately 5 days of summer, so when they hit, you need to make sure to make the most of them. Although it threatened to rain (actually, it did spit a little), we took the chance and had a great visit on the patio.

Though I am walking the line between denial and celebration about finishing work, it all feels very surreal. Today at lunch, my co-workers and I all gathered in our typical goodbye section in Earl's. We've been there for many a goodbye, and somehow it didn't feel as though it was my own. Though I've spent the last few days passing on as much knowledge as possible: training sessions, clearing out my files, and cleaning off my desk, it makes me sad to think that I'm losing the community I've had with my co-workers over these past years. It's rare to find a place (or maybe not...) where everyone gets along on the same level. And we've had so much fun joking around while accomplishing great things (or not so great), that I'm going to miss that environment. Of course, all signs suggest that Darden may be the same way, so perhaps I'll have a new set of people to be sad about leaving in two years. (Actually, this is quite likely.)

Anyway, I hope I don't cry tomorrow. It's going to be sad turning in my key and walking out of the office one last time. I've been counting down the days for a long time, but part of beginning a new adventure means leaving an old one.

A Thank You, Feeding the Homeless and Can I Stay in my 20s Forever?

Tonight was a great evening.

First off, I want to thank the nice young lady who gave me a loonie to plug the parking meter. She was walking down the street with big, huge headphones on, and actually stopped and pulled them off when I said, "excuse me." When I asked if she had change for a ten, she just gave me a loonie so I could get enough time to head into the City Centre mall to meet my friend for half an hour. So, thank you. And I promise I will pay it forward.

Once in the mall, I ran to meet up with a friend to finish up some power shopping before we had to meet some other people a little further away from downtown. Now, for some time, I've been looking to replace my basic brown pumps (which got nasty salty snow dripped all over them thanks to the lazy guy who couldn't be bothered to shovel the walk) and my black pumps (the lifts were gone, and while I could replace them, they never really fit anyway). On a whim, I popped into Nine West, and guess what? Black and brown pumps... on sale... 70% off.

See, I hate buying cheap shoes. But I'm too poor (hello MBA tuition bill) to shell out money for good shoes. The compromise is that I've learned where to buy the good shoes for insane-percent-off. So, without a stressful shopping trip spent searching for shoes, I found both in five minutes.

Fast forward to sitting on the patio at Famoso with some more friends. Eating Neapolitan-style pizza and sipping Pinot Grigio, which is the only type of wine that I absolutely love. Since it's downtown, there are always characters around. As we are eating, this homeless man comes over, opens the plastic pane separating us from him and starts to ask if we've seen his car keys around. Apparently this man is a regular, since our server comes over and says "okay, Wayne, it's time to go." Our server started to close the plastic pane, and Wayne pushed back, and we all felt a little awkward, wondering whether we were supposed to watch or just resume our conversation.

Wayne goes away, but is back a few minutes later. In between, two girls had sat down at the table beside us. When our server came to ask Wayne to leave, the girl at the other table asked if she could give him some of her food. The server said no, since he was disturbing the guests, and the girl sarcastically replied, "yeah, we wouldn't want to feed the hungry." (She wouldn't let up... The server said, "he's reached in and taken food off plates before," and she retorted "you take people's plates off the table." While I appreciated her sentiments, I did want to kick her in the teeth.)

The first thought that immediately came to mind was the comparison between not feeding wild animals in parks. And when that thought hit, I was immediately confronted with the gap between rich and poor in our society. I don't tend to think of myself as rich, but being on the inside of that very physical barrier, treating Wayne almost as an animal, hit like a ton of bricks. I am so blessed with what I have. I would love to say that I went after dinner, gave him some food and got him off the street, but in reality I felt more comfortable after he left. It's all too easy to contribute to charitable organizations on a regular basis and then do our best to ignore people in need. And, again, I wish I could say something more noble, but I do wonder how best to contribute to social justice in society.

And, now that this is getting long, I just want to close with one thought: Can I just stay in my 20s forever? I love evenings on the patio, talking to friends who are between undergrad and graduate degrees, and sharing stories of new jobs and vacations. It was the last visit that we'll have for quite some time, as I am off to Virginia in a few weeks for my MBA, and another friend is heading back to law school.

And Another Thing I'll Miss About Work

Today, our regular Tuesday server at Boston Pizza gave me a hug goodbye. Every Tuesday for the last 6 to 8 months, we have gone to Boston Pizza for lunch. All the staff know us, and we always have the same server. If she's serving in the lounge, we sit in the lounge. If she's serving in the restaurant, only to sections of 6-person booths, and we have 7 people, we stick a chair at the end of the booth and sit in her section. As soon as we've sat down, she's there with our drink orders, and she pretty much knows what we are going to order for food and what to recommend. We all get along well with her and have fun every week.

In addition to our server, one of the managers always comes over to say hi and talk for a bit. We joke around a lot. Our IT guy used to order pizza bread every Tuesday, and one week, after a few of us had already ordered pizza for lunch, the manager told our IT guy that they were out of pizza bread. The IT guy totally believed it, there were good laughs all around, and the next week the manager brought us free pizza bread.

So, as silly as it sounds, I'm really going to miss Pasta Tuesday at Boston Pizza, even though I never ordered pasta. It was fun being a "regular." Maybe I will just have to find a new place to be a regular next year.

What I'll Miss About Work

Today one of my co-workers sent around this link to a few of us. To understand why it is funny, check out step 30, for starters. After a few reply-alls, another co-worker distributed a cartoon that mocked Google maps.

This banter I will miss. Especially because we have a culture that openly mocks people who aren't funny, but attempt to be, so the comments in the reply-alls are generally actually worth reading.

Although you can't call them all meetings, I had several discussions today with co-workers that drifted between personal and business. While some people may view this as counter-productive, I actually think that we accomplish more and experience more collaboration when everything isn't specifically work-related. I love that working together in this way is encouraged at my job.

My co-workers are fun. Though we definitely view the world in different ways, we get along well and there are a few co-workers that I consider genuinely good friends. Seeing people every day opens the doors to talk about things that go beyond work, and I'm going to miss talking to them every day.

When my mom came in a few weeks ago to help me with some computer-related stuff, she was amazed at how much access I had to our database. It takes a long time to build up trust within an organization, but having that trust has meant that it's five times easier to do my job, since I don't have to go ask for permission every time I need access to a network or specific information.

There are many more things I will miss, but so many of them seem like inside jokes. With only four days left, I will definitely make sure to appreciate all of these things over the rest of the week!

Of course, all that said, I was very happy to finish my last "Monday" today. I can't remember the last time I had three weeks off in a row, and the first two weeks back at school, spent in orientations of various kinds, will be a good transition into a semester of insanity.

Farewell Lunch Announcement

One of my co-workers posted this on the company intranet, and I thought it was funny.

Best of Luck, Julie

After two faithful years at [the Company], Julie is heading to Darden School of Business in Virginia to pursue her MBA. We will appreciate all her hard work and accomplishments during her time here and wish her the best.

Come join us at Earls, on [Date and Time]

Sign-up is at the front desk.

Then come join us at Earl's 2 years from now when she comes back as our boss and tells us what to do.

Mundane Night

Here's a tip for all my fellow blogging friends: don't assume that people don't read your blog.

Tonight I was sitting in O'Byrne's, an Irish pub on Whyte Ave. (which is kind of the hip, trendy neighbourhood that every city has, but I can't compare it to anything besides Calgary's Kensington) My friend leans over and says:

"You didn't tell me at supper yesterday that you got your loans in place! And why did you call the evening mundane?"

So I explained to her that it wasn't the evening that was mundane, more that I didn't think the people in India who read my blog would be particularly fascinated by the fact that I spent an hour in MAC yesterday doing my bridesmaid duties in memorizing the instructions for my bride-to-be friend.

A few years ago, I took a creative non-fiction writing class, and the big challenge in writing non-fiction is extrapolating from your own life experiences and writing something that is of value to someone else. I do try to keep that in mind when I am blogging, since there is no point in writing something for others to read if I am not adding any value for the time they spend reading. When I write about Darden details, it's because I know there may be people a year from now who find themselves in the same position as me and looking for some support. (I'll confess, I went back and read the archives of the Darden student bloggers when I was first accepted, hoping to scrounge up any useful information! And to get excited about what was coming...)

So when I write "this is what I did this evening..." I do apologize because I haven't figured out what value it adds. But, this evening I was reflecting on the beauty of friendship and communication. My bride friend is in town from China, on her way to her new home in Iowa. We've pretty much talked daily on MSN over the three years she's been gone, thanks to a time difference that has her on lunch break right before my bedtime. And as awesome as it is to actually be sitting and talking face-to-face, it doesn't feel weird or abnormal. I love friendships like that. You can live on almost the opposite side of the world, but pick up right where you've left off when you do see each other. That is really encouraging to me, as the reality of the rest of my life is that there will be people I love who live far away.

And if my other good friend or sister who are in Europe happen to read this, I'm looking forward to talking to you face-to-face as well in just a few short weeks!

Making Progress

This afternoon, I took a look at my to-do list and realized it isn't feeling so daunting anymore. While there always seems to be a need to spend more time with the people you love, I am happy that I have at least been able to schedule in my good friends and family over the next month. And I finally invited everyone to my big farewell/birthday bash the day before I leave. (Well, you know how it goes, you try and make sure to invite everyone, but you always seem to miss you, so if I missed you, it's July 31 at my parents' place, but please let me know you're coming.)

July is going to be a fun month! Only two weeks left of work, then off to Iowa for a friend's wedding, then my sister is home from Germany for my last week in Edmonton! (And I'm taking off to the mountains for a few days to catch up with one of my other best friends.)

Of course, I'm still trying to sell my car. Please buy it, if you live in Edmonton. I'll give you a good deal, and it's amazing on gas and runs super well.

Manic

These days it seems like my mood is totally manic. In one minute, I start freaking out about the upcoming move. I've been excited about it for a long time, and I'm still excited and it's definitely time to move, but... For a long time I ignored the downsides of moving... leaving everyone I know 2,300 miles and two time-zones away. And as I'm at a point where I really only have two weeks left in Edmonton (plus a few scattered days after that), the goodbyes are starting to become a reality.

And there are still some details to be worked out. (Seriously, BUY MY CAR!) So I get really stressed about working out the remaining details and the sheer amount of STUFF that has to be done. (Well, mostly just sorting and packing... and buying new clothes. I've gotten away with a wardrobe consisting mostly of office attire for the past two years and have virtually no casual clothes. And the casual clothes that I did have no longer fit thanks to the running and healthy eating and all that jazz...)

But then I remind myself to just relax and calm down. My mom told me that I probably wouldn't get everything done or see everyone, but that it would be okay.

So these days, I swing from stressing out to finding peace back to worrying about going to a new place (which I haven't really done for 18 years, oops!) to reminding myself that everything will be fine. For so long I was just ready to up and leave this Edmonton life behind that I chose to forget about the fact that I'm pretty much leaving for good. And there are people here that I really love and will miss.

It's raining tonight, though, and that always gives me peace, even though it seems to be foiling my plans for salad and cocktails on the patio tomorrow at lunch.

Hehe, well, next year will be a real treat once I get into actually stressful situations. I think I handle those better, though!