Saturday, June 23, 2012

A New Day

After 17 and a half full time years and tack on another 7 years part time, I am saying goodbye to the College of Southern Nevada as their Performing Arts Center Director.  I absolutely loved working at the college.  Starting as a student production assistant, to lighting designer, to lighting director, box office manager, house manager, assistant director and finally director for the past 10 years, I'm retiring.  I loved working in theatre and at an educational institution. The vibe around a college is just very high energy every day.

 So many friends called to ask how I was doing, was I second-guessing my decision, was I sad?  No!  I have accomplished everything I ever wanted to at the center.  I was on more committees than I can count on both hands and feet. I took work home everyday. I loved every minute. But the last four years on chemo, five surgeries, my administrative assistant removed and not refilled adding to the daily responsibilities, took its toll. It was getting more difficult to put in the hours that I was used to doing. And once the facility was everything I had hoped to accomplish, with equipment and more importantly compliant to all safety regulations (which took three years!) the challenge just wasn't there.

Then there is the family.  Parents are getting older and medical issues occur with a little more frequency. Husband is retired...well sorta! Grandkids are growing quickly. I want more time for family. More trips to Disneyland with the kiddos. I used to keep track of my hours at work.  After I had accumulated over 800 days (not hours!) of overtime (time over eight hours, I was salary so no OT) I realized those were days/hours that really should of been spent with family. You can't get any of that time back. I was committed and very dedicated to my job.  That's how I was raised.  Work hard. But at the same time, sacraficed time that could have been spent with family.

Sure, their are many, many friends I will miss, my staff and particularly the two theatres I managed. But I walked out of the doors yesterday, filled with joy, sans a huge key ring, felt the sun on my face and a whole new world before me.  Yee Ha!