tomorrow

A year from now, my life will be pretty much completely different.

Tomorrow is my very last day as a GIS Analyst in Hickory.  After five and a half years,  I am leaving.  Why?  Well it turns out when your job is based off of contracts, when the contracts run out, you're out of a job.  In the beginning of June, I was told that they probably would not be able to pay me any more after September 30th.

Needless to say, I freaked out.

How am I going to pay my bills?

What am I going to do for insurance?

Well, the first thing I did was get online and apply for every GIS (mapping) position in NC that I could find.  I think I applied for six jobs that first day.

After a few weeks though, I wasn't hearing anything back and I was running out of positions to apply for.  I was checking jobsites several times a day.   Then I got a call for a interview! Four days later I went to that interview.

And... I was pretty darn sure I tanked.  TANKED.   I'm just one of those people that get nervous and my mind goes completely blank when I realize I'm nervous.  I was tripping over my words and repeating myself.  When they got to the GIS questions part of the interview, I had NO IDEA what the heck they were talking about.  But somehow I got through it, and went home.  And looked for more jobs.

At some point I was starting to feel a little hopeless, but then there's Carmen.  Carmen is a pretty positive person, and she talked to me and told me that if I think positively, things will go positively.  So, that's what I did. I started to see the good side of all of this.  If I did go on unemployment, I could at least sleep in.  Some of my bills I'd be able to defer.  I still had my Outback job, so I could possibly still pay my mortgage.  I could trade my car in and get something older that I wouldn't have to make payments on.  I could put all of my focus on planning my wedding.  Things would be okay.  And I would find a job.

This positive thinking thing really does help.  Carmen is a genius.

So, then I got a call from the people I interviewed with.  And a job offer.  WHAT?  I couldn't believe it, but yes, I got a new job.  A better job, really.

And on Monday, I start my new job, and my life will be changing.  

In January, I'm getting married.  Shortly after we will move to Winston-Salem, and we will have a new house/apartment/condo to live in.   We may even get a dog.  Next July 22?  I will be in a totally different situation.  

I will miss my friends in Hickory very dearly, but I will only be an hour away.  I will miss my coworkers and that sense of family that I have with them.  I will miss Katie and how she knows exactly what to say.  I will miss Carmen, and living next door.   When something breaks in my house in Winston,  I will not be able to run next door and ask them what to do.  And I won't have my trivia nights with her...  Perhaps we'll set up a weekly dinner in Statesville or something.

Things will be different.

But we will okay.  :)