Unemployment: Day 1

After 10 years with my company, we are going out of business. Day 1 is for processing. Packing up my entire professional life into a few boxes. Crying and exchanging contact information with colleagues. Remembering every high and low from the last 10 years of my professional identity. Expressing gratitude for a decade of learning and growing. I am proud of everything we’ve accomplished, of who we are and how we’ve treated everyone we’ve worked with and for. It is through no fault of our own that we find ourselves in this situation, and I know if we had not we would continue to do quality work, to help businesses, to support them and come through when they need us most.

I am grateful for the best team I’ve every had the pleasure of working with. I’ve never known a group of professionals so committed to doing what we do well. Every day solving problems, employing solutions, supporting and developing our clients, complementing each others’ strengths and weaknesses was worthwhile.

Today is for celebrating everything we’ve done, everything we were. Small as we were, we accomplished some incredible things. We re-imagined what a print and marketing company can be, building a loyal and incredible client base who we helped grow and succeed. We constantly questioned and sought to be better, to do better. We made a difference, no matter how minor.

I am both broken-hearted and humbled. I know that these people will move on to be valuable members of new teams, and I grieve this incredible loss of people I’ve come to view not only as friends, but family.