If you didn’t already think that quitting your job is awkward, and you’re looking for a way to infuse a lot more uncomfortableness into the situation, you should try quitting your job on April Fool’s Day.  Once your boss gets over the initial shock of you tendering your resignation, you’ll have to experience the whole situation again.  Here’s the sequence:

Me: My last day here is going to be May 6th.
Him: You’ve got to be kidding me.
Me: Nope.  I’ve really enjoyed working here, but I’m going to start nursing school in May.
Him: OH. I GET IT. APRIL FOOLS.  CAUSE YOU ARE BASICALLY THE NURSE HERE AND HAHAHAH. Good joke, Sarah. You got me.
Me: Yeah, about that.  Sorry that it happens to be the first of April, but I really just found out that I have to start in May, and so I’m telling you as soon as I found out. I really am leaving. For real.
Him: Shit.

So there’s the long and the short of it.  Remember when the ISD told me that they were going to pay me 10,000 dollars more/year than they actually paid me?  And remember how I took the job anyway?  When that happened, my principal/boss looked me square in the face and told me a few things.  He told me that #1) he realized I was overqualified for my job, and he didn’t expect me to stick around forever, but that he was going to really appreciate having me there while he could, and #2) as soon as I found an opportunity that was more lucrative, I should jump on it, because I was worth way more than they were paying me.  Nice, right?  Let’s pause that thought.  I’ll come back to it.

So last year, I was in TCU’s nursing program.  Then there was a SNAFU, and I wasn’t in TCU’s nursing program anymore.  Luckily, TCU was serious last year when they were all, COME BACK, PLEASE.  I re-applied for the program that I was in, and they re-admitted me to start the program in the Summer 2010 semester.  They even told me that I don’t have to re-take the class that I’ve already taken.  Sweet, right?  So I plotted out a schedule, and it lined up perfectly that our last day of school was the Friday before I was due to start at TCU.  Everything was fantastic and there were birds singing in the sky.  Until I realized that TCU had changed the order of the classes, and instead of starting the program in June, I was actually due to start on May 17th. Oops.

I spent exactly 24 hours feeling Guilty as Hell about the fact that I was going to leave my school before the end of the school year.  I was turning into my mother, sitting around talking about how there was no way that our school or the ISD was going to survive my early departure; surely the scholastic world would crumble around my absence.  Then Zack shook my like a baby and told me a few things that snapped me out of it. #1) They survived before you, and they’re going to survive after you leave.  #2) (and he said this because he truly understands me, as a woman) Just because #1 is true, it doesn’t make you less important.  You did very wonderful and important things there. #3) Remember when (and this is where we tie it all together) they told you they were going to pay you 10,000 more a year than they pay you?  and #4) Remember when Mr. Principal told you that, “as soon as you find something better you need to take it”?  SO: NUMBER FIVE: DON’T FEEL BAD. GET OUT OF THERE.

And so that’s the plan.  I am going back to nursing school.  The birds have resumed with the singing in the sky, all is right with the world, and my boss believes that my last day really is going to be May the 6th.

Here’s an understatement: I am unbelievably excited.  It feels so good to be back on track, back to making progress towards accomplishing The Dream.