Saturday was my last day at my job of over 8 years.
While I'm definitely excited for new beginnings and pursuing what will be my career for the rest of my life, I still had so many memories and a lot of wonderful people that I had to say good-bye to.
I started at Olive Garden in August of 2004. I was only 20 years old, and one of the youngest team members there (we don't hire under age 18). I was shy and quiet and scared of pretty much everything and everyone. My trainer (who ended up going on to management shortly after and was our manager until 2010) once told me she didn't think I'd make it out of training. I served for 6 long years, and by that time I was pretty burnt out with it.
Around the same time, our entire management team went through an entire reshuffling. We lost 3 of the 4 that had been there since I started and we gained a new GM. If that had not have happened, I would have quit long ago, however, I loved our new GM (Megan) and her changes that she made to our restaurant. After that we also got another great manager named Dani. Those two have taught me SO MUCH and inspired me so much and I'm so happy we can now be friends & talk outside of work because I never want to lose them, and I want them always to be in my life.
The last two years with them have been wonderful, however, nursing school is getting harder and harder and if I want to be done within a year, I'm going to have to put all my time and effort into passing my classes. My mom is also having surgery next week and I'm going to need to take care of her and she can't drive for 6 weeks. And lastly, we are moving next month.
This past weekend was filled with so many memories and tons of tears and crying and sad good-byes (they got me a cake, balloons, and two cards which caused me to lose it completely), but 2 days later I'm feeling good about it. I know that all the people I love will keep in touch and I know that the next job I get I will give just as much loyalty, hard work, and dedication as I did at this one. I'm so excited to see what the future holds for me and I know that the 1371 family will always be in my life.
