Last Time

This was me this morning at the airport, getting ready to hop on a plane to Birmingham for my last installation.  The feeling was definitely bittersweet, but I’m so excited for the future and the rest of my career.  As I was walking through the airport, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’m going to miss wandering through the SLC airport on a regular basis.  And I decided I probably won’t, but there are many other things that I will miss.

• I will miss the camaraderie of being on the road with the rest of my team. 
• I will miss meeting new people all the time and seeing life from different points of view. I truly love all the places that I’ve been able to see because of the people I’ve met.
• I will miss the team dinners and meetings at the hotel bar (where I of course only had water J).  I’ve definitely had some good times with my team.
• I will miss working directly with clients
• I will miss taking vacations for free with my honey!  In the last 2 years, we’ve been to some amazing places.  We have literally not paid for a night in a hotel in over 18 months, and we would not have had these opportunities without my business travel.   
• I will miss working in places where I can do a little sight-seeing like:
•        Hawaii

•        Chicago
  



•        San Antonio
  






•        New York City




•        Albuquerque (not really that awesome, but seeing Mr. White’s house was cool)!




•     South Dakota (Also not cool, but I can cross Mt. Rushmore off the bucket list!)

Even though I will miss all of these items, there are some other things that I will definitely not miss:

• I will not miss flight delays and sleepless nights in a hotel.
• I will not miss working with clients at some of the most stressful moments of their careers.
• I will not miss data validation on Sundays when no one (including me) wants to be at work.
• I will not miss Controller Visits.
• I will not miss being in Wisconsin in January or St. Louis in July.
•  I will not miss saying goodbye to my husband all the time.
• I will not miss packing and unpacking (and sometimes I didn’t even unpack if I had a quick turn-around – whoops).
•  I will not miss rental cars and trying to find my way around new places

Installing for DealerTrack offered some really incredible opportunities and jump-started my career in ways that I never could have imagined two years ago.  Eric and I really have been so blessed.  In my new position at DealerTrack, I will be in the office nearly all the time. There may still be some business travel, but it will be few and far between.  I will be working with the install team rather than clients and doing much more technical tasks than training clients.  I have a team of 8 wonderful people reporting to me and I’ve already loved working with each of them.  Here’s to the future.