New doors are opening

Tomorrow is my last day at my current job. I have been in this particular position since November 2002. I'm literally moving about 50 feet down the hall into a different department. No more caseload!! I am excited at this prospect, don't get me wrong, but leaving a job is never easy...
The other night, I had a terrifying dream that my uncle was piloting a large jet full of old people. The plane was taking off from my Dad's back yard. Just after it took off, it crashed behind his house. It turned out that even though my Dad was standing right next to me watching the plane's demise, he was simultaneously one of its passengers.
When I finally got the balls (seemed like a whole day later) to go out and inspect the crash, I saw that my Dad was dead in one of the plane's seats. He was also walking in front of me...neither one of us could bear to look at his dead body slumped over in the seat.
I don't know what all this means and I'm not too sure that I care. The point is that I am moving on in my worklife and at the same time mourning a loss for the work I have done for the past eight years. This new job is really a new path (not to sound too corny, but really). For the first time in eight years of social work, I will not have professional responsibility for the livlihoods of other people. After awhile that becomes quite a drag.
I saw a letter to the editor the other day in the Ann Arbor News. The woman who wrote it is a social worker herself. In the letter, she spoke to all the things that a social worker does and what a blessing it is to have so many of us around. How true. Most people don't realize that 'behind the scenes' of most corporations, agencies, and municipalities, there is a crew of social workers, tirelessly toiling to make thier communities a better place to live, work, and play.
I will be sad to leave this group of people. They are the people I have always wanted to be and the person that I have become. It is with their assistance and mentoring that I have been able to become the type of person I used to look up to.
I also cannot forget the countless lessons I have learned from my customers over the years...humility, gratitude, and perhaps the most important of all... living life on life's terms.