The first day of the rest of my job.

I suppose I can shout it from the rooftops now: I am leaving this position by, hopefully, the end of August. It's finally official, except for the piece of paper that has my offer on it. I will be training my replacement starting in about a week and change, and you know, good luck to her for what she's about to step into.

Today is the best that I've felt about coming in to work for a long time. A huge weight has been lifted, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting larger and larger - use whatever cliche you'd like here, but I've been smiling all day, singing along with my music and acting like a general-issue retard.

But here's the cloud in my silver lining:

I'll grant that there will be eventual disappointment in my new job sometime around the end of the honeymoon period - someone will get on my last nerve, or some jerkwad will make himself or herself a major part of my working life, or something. I don't relish the thought - the world is full of assholes, and I guess I'm just destined to meet every last one of them before I shuffle off this mortal coil - but I'm enough of a realist to know that no job is a permanent panacea. I've fallen out of love with enough jobs to know that in about two years, some confidant will start receiving these self-indulgent whinging e-mails from me that say, "Oh, I'm so unhappy here anymore! I hate (x)! I hate (y)! If I knew how to bury bodies for maximum seclusion, I would kill (z)! etc. etc. etc." And I'll become a cancer to everyone I touch, and my wife will tell me to quit if I'm so unhappy. This has happened twice since I've been married, and I'm moving on to job #3 this month.

But I will have done a good enough job that my company will scramble to find me a promotion, and then we'll hit the big "reset" button again.

I hope, anyway. Truth be told, I'm scared shitless of what's coming next. My daydreams of a personal employment Utopia - of coming to a job where I am happy and fulfilled and surrounded by wonderful people and knowing that if I do a great job, there are great things ahead of me - are crushed by the realization that this is a new challenge that I am grossly underqualified for, that this could be the end of my career with this company should I fail. Oddly enough, I'm also salivating at the opportunity to prove myself wrong and to justify my company's faith in me.

I'd bet on me, if I were you.