First steps

First official step that's come along: I turned in my corporate purchasing card today. There's no longer time for me to buy anything with it. I packed up the first two boxes of photos and assorted papers and carried them to the car. Tomorrow I visit HR just to make sure I've got all the paperwork done, and then I turn in my official retirement letter.

Right now my office has little piles all over. The past few days I've been going through my files, trying to throw out anything that nobody would care about but me, so that the next person in this office won't have to. Doing that means, though, that I have to recognize, piece by piece, that this item that was important to me is now needed and wanted by nobody.

Meanwhile the students drop in for advice, and ask what they are going to do in January. My job, as well as the other adviser's, will likely not be filled until months from now. One person, working at it part-time, will be advising all three print publications. The students will have to learn to be even more self-sufficient. They will survive, but it's not ideal. I haven't changed my mind about retiring, but I do feel like I'm abandoning them and wish I could be around to answer their questions.

Anybody else out there have this problem with the closing-out process?