Hm.

A few weeks ago I accepted a position with an Ohio-based business. My current job is my first professional job and because of that I think it was hard for me to admit that it was time for me to move on. I've had no trouble leaving part-time positions or graduate assistantships when they ceased to excite me any longer. This was different. I work with a great group of people. And today I really mean that. There were days when I wanted to run away and never come back; there were days when I closed my door and willed myself not to cry, but for the majority of the past four years I've been surrounded by interesting, intelligent (and sometimes witty)people. I've got a great group of work friends, most of whom I would consider real friends. I've exchanged some fun e-mails and engaged in some excellent banter with my work crush. I've learned that I have some hidden talents. I've also learned a lot about wine. So when I realized that this job was no longer challenging me, when I didn't care what I looked like in the morning and when I came to dread what I had once loved I knew it was time to start looking. And I did. One of the things I love about where I work is that we're an indedendent company. That was one of the things that I looked for when I began searching. Unlike previous job searches, I found that my skills were now in demand. (I have skills!) I went on several interviews in search of the right position (not, as I told many of my interviewers, just a new position). Just as when I accepted the position here in Charleston, I found myself accepting a position in one of the last places I ever expected to be. I think if I were younger I would jump at the chance to live in DC or NYC or Boston, but in my early 30's I'm realistic and I know that the dollar goes a lot further in a smaller town. I'm looking forward to living on the lake and being thirty minutes from Trader Joes and Ikea. I doubt I'll shop there anymore than I do, but it's the little things.

As excited as I am for my new job and my new life, I didn't take into account how difficult it would be to say goodbye to my work friends and winddown the work crush. I didn't take into consideration what it would feel like to say goodbye to friends. My wonderful, fabulous, could not ask for better friends. As sad as I am, I'm excited too. While I embrace my "spinster girl" status, my friends are all in long term relationships. They're getting married, having babies or having babies and getting married. Their lives are moving forward and I didn't feel like that would be possible in Charleston. Not for me anyway. And while I can certainly live a full life without those things, I'm not ashamed to say that I want them. So, did I make the right decision? I don't know. I might never know. I'm looking forward to finding out, whatever the result might be.