As one chapter ends, another begins

Today was my final day at the company that I have worked for since June 2000. At the moment I don't really feel anything, the weekend is coming up and I'll be back at work next Friday for my leaving do (long story and complicated) so it doesn't really feel like I've left yet.

However, over the last few weeks I've received hundreds of 'good luck' messages as I walked the dark corridors of Roman House. This has been quite emotional, and I've come to realise that I'm not leaving behind a huge group of work colleagues, but I'm leaving behind a huge group of friends (which will hopefully keep in touch). I would like to say that, for everyone back at my 'old work', I wish you all the best, good health and every success for the future.

I love walking as it's a great time to think and as I left work for the final time, on this beautiful Friday afternoon, I did just that. During this time I thought allot about the 'chapters' of my life. I suppose the first three chapters would be infancy, lower school and middle school. The fourth chapter, which has just ended, for me would be about actively understanding. My four and a half years at university has been my biggest 'life changing' experience to date. Mr J Clarkson once wrote...

"... The higher in education you go, the less you know..."

And he is completely true. In lower levels of education you are taught pretty much black and white. My degree has taught me that everything isn't black and white, there are positives and negatives to situations and understanding this has changed me as a person and will stand me in good stead when I face different cultures from around the world ... I just hope when I get there I will reflect before making any decision I may need to. On a side note, research now plays an important role in everything I do and my university experience has also kindled a love for novels that I had never had before.

My time at work has helped me to 'actively' understand and learn. Through my time with my employer I have met people from different social backgrounds, with different political views, with different educational levels and different work experiences . Working in such an environment has been a challenge and a joy; I hope I haven't annoyed too many people within the nine years at work. This active learning will help me within the next chapter of my life.

And onto chapter 5, travelling. To quote Gavin from work (though I'm sure someone else thought of the quote first) "... every day is a school day...". This will be certainly true for this chapter; the different people, cultures, foods, sights, buildings ... well everything really, is going to increase my learning of this fantastic world that I share with 6 billion other people and billions of other species. This I feel will probably over take my degree in being my biggest 'life changing' experience; however to do so effectively I have set myself one goal:

• I want to be pushed out of my comfort zone

If you delve to the start of this blog you will come across a post called 'safe and boring' which really sums up my life to date. I want to push myself out of my comfort zone, experience new things that I thought I never would ... and most importantly I want to access, learn and improve the way I handle this. This along with experiencing new cultures, seeing natural and man-made sights and finally understand the history of the countries I visit are my goals for this trip.

So where am I now with getting ready for this trip. Well I submitted a revised draft of my final TEFL exam today, so hopefully I've passed that; now is the time that I will start to get all the little things done to get my self ready for 2 weeks time (actually it's less than that).

"... analyse the past and look to the future; for little can be gained by analysing the future and looking to the past..."