Last Days

January 1st is my last offical day working at Parkridge East Hospital in Chattanooga. I have 24 hours left to work and then I will no longer be employed there. It's a weird feeling to have. I've never really "quit" a job before. At least not in the sense of giving a notice and being all offical about it. In the past it was because I went off to college or moved away, not really anything where I made the decision to leave. This was my first "grown up/real" job. It marked the beginning of my career as a PA. I moved to Chattanooga specifically for this job and started over on my own. I truely felt like I had entered the adult world. I bought my first car and my first house. I was completely independent of my parents in a place where no one knew me as "one of the Keyt girls". It was a strange feeling at first, but one I am very glad to have had. I have grown up a lot in the past 2 years and I feel as though I have finally figured out who I am and the kind of person I want to be. It's been a time of personal growth and struggle. I've met lots of great people and have made some great memories. I'm going to miss this place.
The Chattanooga chapter of my life is about to end though. Over the next couple of weeks I will pack up my stuff and make the transition back to Johnson City to start my new job there. I'm excited about it. I'm ready for a change. For the next phase of my life. But it may also be a bit weird to be back in the town where I grew up. Where so much has changed but at the same time so much has stayed the same. I'm not the same person I was in high school. It's been almost 6 1/2 years since I really lived there. In some ways it's like coming home, but I'm not the kid who grew up there, or the teenager who made trips home from college. I'm an adult now. I have the chance to make my own idenity and life separate from the one I left when I was 19. I hope it will be a good experience. I really feel like this where God wants me to be right now and I have a feeling of peace that I haven't had in several months.
I don't know what this next chapter of my life will hold, but I'm ready for it, whatever it may be. Look out Johnson City, I'm coming back!