Goodbyes are Never Easy

A week ago, I made the decision to resign from my position in Georgia. An executive decision was made by our higher ups who work off-site and I did not agree with the way the incident was handled. (I won't go into details right now, but I promise you I will in about a week.) 

Leaving TIP was not an easy decision to make. I spent about 24 hours mulling it over and over again, but eventually decided I needed to take a stand. After speaking with my amazing administrative team, it was clear that I had to leave to prove a point and to prevent myself from feeling physically ill every day for the rest of the term. 

When it came time to tell my staff I was leaving, it was incredibly hard to find the words. I'm still trying to find a way to tell them how wonderful each and every one of them is and how lucky I was to have been able to work with them. They were the best staff I've ever had the pleasure of working with and I wish I could fully express my feelings. Unfortunately, there are no words to describe them and the experiences we had together at UGA this summer.

As for the students, I never got to say goodbye to them. Last Sunday, we hosted a movie night and I made sure to tell the students how great they are and how lucky TIP is to have them in their program. It took everything in me not to burst into tears, but I held it together so the students wouldn't catch on that things were amiss. 

This last week has been rough to say the least. I've been struggling and according to people who are close to me, I'm "not the same as I was before I left." I can't explain to you why this is hitting me so hard, but just know it's going to take some time for me to get back to the way I was before I left for TIP. 

There's a thousand things I want to write down, but this is all I could put into words.

I guess the moral of the story is:

Stand up for what you believe in, no matter how tough it may be.