Hail and Farewell

Today was another bittersweet day on the job. One of my coworkers is leaving the organization in order to pursue a masters in education. His last day is tomorrow, but there was a "hail and farewell" party for him this evening. This young man has been a dedicated employee for the past five years- always taking on interesting side projects while an ordinary mortal would be content to stick to the day's regular tasks. His creativity and work ethic is unequaled, and I'm sure he'll pursue his graduate degree with the same dedication he brought to the job. Our loss will be the gain for countless students.

While he will be attending grad school, my soon-to-be-erstwhile coworker is also involved in an alt-folk, avant garde-ish band that's getting some buzz in the Northlands. I always joke about bands that look like a group of grad students, now I actually have a prime example of one.

Here's wishing the best of luck to an esteemed comrade. Fare thee well and kicketh some ass, bro.

POSTSCRIPT: This morning, as I was readying the site for the day shift, I read my friend's last log entry. He wasn't too happy about the big "realignment" the organization decided to undergo last January. The last sentence of his last entry read: "Keep fighting for this place." The sentiment is shared by all of us who are on the "ground", so to speak.