The end of an era.

The Casey-Aubrie-Summer era at Big Brothers Big Sisters is officially over. I had my last day last week, and Aubrie scored her dream job with the Marrow Foundation and will be leaving next week. :(

All I can say is---- "SOOOO many emotions right now...." (inside joke- some of you will catch onto this).

I won't miss: office coffee (can't put enough cream in that crap), trying to handle PA and other awkward situations, the sketchy office building with shady characters, our phones going down when I need it the most, commuting to downtown Phoenix, getting confused with other Asian girl Marianne (see picture above), working weekends, having to go downstairs into the dungeon, having a different schedule everyday, telling people in the community we aren't the Boys and Girls Club, and meetings-memos-meetings-memos. (Rinse, repeat).

I will miss: impromptu 3 hour lunches to Sauce, recruiting awesome Bigs for Littles, happy hours, communicating with co-workers through email, IM, phone, myspace, facebook, and knocking on their office doors...all during the workday, greetings in the morning and evening from Grace, Shirley being my personal assistant and not even knowing it, sharing ITunes and getting to listen to Sepe-Anne-Keith's music, coffee runs, watching new employees think they broke the fax machine by my office, acting silly in staff meetings and getting paid for it, meeting the best Bigs and Littles at events, and mostly sharing an office with my incredibly talented and tremendously wonderful partner in crime, Aubrie.

Imagine going to a place everyday (everyday is a LOT) where despite leadership issues, low pay, and gross coffee, you have friends surrounding you. Friends who will eat long lunches, stick up for you, lend a helping hand, celebrate every special occasion, party with you on weekends, party with you in Mexico, drink coffee with you, go to Vegas with you, genuinely ask you about how things are going, work along side with you, and amaze you with their talents that could be valued elsewhere. But no, they are right next to you using their skill set to find mentors for the next generation in our community. Did I mention there are about 40 of them? And that they genuinely care about everyone and are the nicest, kindest people around. Good people are harder and harder to find these days, so this is a big deal. It's been a joy, and I'm pretty sure most work environments won't come close to what I've experienced here. People who work in cubicles with weirdos can only dream of having these people around. THANK YOU a million times over! The only thing that can top these people are drinking beer in the office! ;) You will all be missed dearly....