The dark days are behind us

I have had two full days of the new job now and, though i'm not quite settled in and comfortable with everything at the new place, I still know that it was 100% the right move to make. I came home from work yesterday evening and actually felt relaxed for the first time in over a year. I don't have to check my email every five minutes or carry a blackberry with me to make sure everyone can get in touch with me. Once I leave the office, every single bit of that time belongs to me alone. It's incredible to me how my work at DE just quietly infiltrated and took over every minute of my personal life until there was nothing left. For the past few weeks I have felt like I was being de-brainwashed, finally understanding that I didn't have to dedicate my entire waking life to my job and slowly realizing the now-endless possibilities. Never again will I have to answer email on my blackberry in a darkened movie theater. Never again will I have to get up in the middle of dinner at my parents' house and attend to some lawyer's software issue. Never again will I have to go into the office at 3 AM on a Friday night to load data. Never again will I be awakened in the middle of the night by a new email from a client in the UK who doesn't care what time it is and needs help NOW. I can't express to you how delighted I am that I don't have to deal with any of that ridiculousness again.

So the new place is pretty great, actually. Everyone has been very friendly and they seem to be a pretty close-knit group, which is exciting because I tend to work better with a team like that, but scary also because right now I'm the outsider. I'm pretty sure I'll find my place soon enough though. Another tough thing about a new job is that no matter what support experience I have, there are always a million situation-specific things to know before I can feel like I really know what I'm doing. I expect to be pretty comfortable within the next week or two though. Unlike DE where things were constantly changing so support never had a clue how to solve anything, I'm looking forward to being able to actually help people here. I think this job is going to be a really good fit.