let the countdown begin...

My last shift is April 30th. I told my boss yesterday morning and handed her my resignation letter. (YAYYY!!!) It went as well as it could have, I'd say. I was really nervous about the whole endeavor; I don't like feeling like I'm backing out on people, this was the first adult job I've had to quit, and I knew I needed to be diplomatic and frame it in a positive light-- more "I have this great opportunity" and less "this job has been miserable." And honestly, I like my manager and I know I will miss some of my coworkers. So, I wouldn't want to be overly critical anyway. At the same time, I really want to say, "And by the way, after I am gone, you really might want to have administration act like they care about the nurses and the safety of the patients. And if you are going to hire new grads, don't put them with dud nurses, and check in with them frequently." Come to think of it, I might actually be able to have the new grad discussion with her. When I started, we had a different manager who was rather passive aggressive and two faced. She would act all supportive but really not be remotely willing to do anything actually helpful. My current manager seems to be pretty empathetic and level headed. And I feel like she got the techs to step up and be more accountable about some things, which is really helpful. During my performance review, which was really recently after she'd been hired, so it was sort of combined with a get to know you aspect, she asked me about my experience transitioning from a new grad to being on my own, and I told her how traumatic it was, and she seemed genuinely bothered by a lot of it. All that being said, I don't know that that is a can of worms I want to get into.

Anyway, back to the present. So she said she is always sad to see a nurse leave, but that she really believes in following your heart, and she said that what I'm headed to do is "courageous." She also said she wants me to keep her posted on how things go, as well as an implication that she would be open to me coming back to my job. Or something like that.

I am really glad for that whole conversation to be over. Phew! Now I can feel like I can really start looking towards the future and planning how I'm going to clean out my stuff, move it home, move parts of it to NC, manage not having a real income or insurance over the summer, etc. And beyond all that-- I get to actually be social and have hobbies again!! (Also, I'm open to suggestions for how I should spend my free time) :)