See you again soon

It’s not good bye, it’s until next time.

It is a tradition at Handson for those volunteers leaving to say a few words at the end of the nightly meeting. While often a very long and drawn out affair, I alway think of them as bittersweet moments. On one hand they are often very moving, thoughtful, and thought-provoking, but on the other hand, they signal that a new friend is leaving.

Since today is my last day, I was given the opportunity to say good bye.

There were so many things I wanted to say. I wanted to tell them some of the stories from Long Beach, or from doing interiors, or even from today's work in Ocean Springs. And I wanted to say how great they all were, from Texas Girl to George to Jeff to John to Kerrie to JoJo to Scrubs to Donna to both Bills, and to all the other great people I had the opportunity to work with--the list is endless.

I wanted to recount the drives to locations where we got lost (Note, for the record, it was NEVER my fault!--word of advice to crew leaders...if any of you have Tony or Scrubs as a navigator, break down and invest in a GPS, you may need it ;)--- and to thank all of the team members for both the fun and the work effort. I wanted to remind them that they can make a difference. That small things applied regularly make big differences. That they had the power to improve not only Biloxi but everywhere. Not only by volunteering, but by simply doing what they do to the best of the abilty and by living the golden rule.

I wanted to thank Dave Campbell, Darius, and Mark for everything. To thank Jay for her adminstrative skills and good nature, and for keeping a chaotic situtation a bit less chaotic--Oh and for calling my mom--as I had left my cell phone out and she had the ingenuity to call "MOTHERCELL" to see whose phone it was).

But the meeting was quickly becoming too long and by the time that it was my turn to speak, I had decided that I would just give people a quick and fast so-long:

“Don’t worry, this is going to be short. It is not a real good-bye
since I will be coming back. In fact I would encourage all to come
back. As you know it is a simply wonderful place. I can not think of
a single bad day that I have been here. It is simply wonderful group of
people doing so many important things. Thank you all and I will see you
again soon.”

That was it. Boring, but straight to the point. And oh so true.