On Saying Goodbye, Part 2

{Disclaimer: beware of a picture heavy post all about the people who have been a huge, very important part of my life for the last 5 years}

One of the hardest decisions I have ever made in my life was the decision to leave Charlotte.

It wasn't because Charlotte's a cool town to live in {even though it is}

It wasn't because I had an amazing job in Charlotte {even though I did}

It wasn't even because of my love of all the breweries {even though I'm gonna miss those a lot}

It was because of the people that I work with.

These are the people that got to deal with my 21 year old self, fresh out of college, who had no idea what the real world was like. I showed up exactly five years today with no idea of the impact that the people that I was about to meet for the first time would have on me.

But over the course of five years... we've done a lot.

There were birthday celebrations.

Celebrations of new babies including two separate baby showers... at a bar.

There were wedding showers, a bachelorette weekend, and the actual weddings.

There was a lot of running. Like, a LOT, of running.

There was the PICA Awards night that could never be lived up to...

...even though we tried to a couple of years later.

There was every single Solid Orange Friday picture that I made everyone take during the 2012 and 2014 football seasons... I think there were nearly two dozen pictures when it was all said and done. Working with so many Clemson grads might have been one of my favorite things about where I worked.

Speaking of football... we did quite a bit of that. Clemson games, Panthers games, ACC Championship games.

There were even a couple of ACC themed 5Ks thrown in there for fun.

We celebrated our company's 30th anniversary by doing ridiculous things in a photobooth.

& I celebrated our 30th anniversary by reminding everyone of exactly how young I was.

We represented our company at Clemson's Intern Employer Day... after a failed attempt to go to every single bar in Clemson on a Monday night.

There were girls' nights.

& a Valentine's Day cocktail party.

But most of all, these are the people that are my family away from home.

We had Taco Tuesday nights and watched football together on Thursdays and went to baseball games at the new stadium. There were trips to the farmers market and biking adventures on the greenway. When I had a bad day at work, I knew there was always somebody that I could go out to lunch with or grab a drink after work with. There were spin classes, boot camp classes, and kickboxing classes together. They are the ones that I joked around with all day and who kept me entertained during work. These are the people who introduced me to running, who taught me to like beer, and who told me which restaurants to go to.

They are the ones who took me out to lunch when I {heaven forbid} had to go to work on my birthday.

They are the ones who encouraged me to sign up for my half marathon, trained with me, and cheered me on when I ran it.

They are the ones who watched me grow up over the last five years.

To be honest, I still have no idea how to say goodbye {so I'm still not going to do so!} but I am so glad to have people in my life that that are impossible to leave behind.