I have written many iterations of this post and none of them have felt quite right. How do I turn the page on a chapter of my life that has been so impactful?
The last five years with NIAMRRE have been amazing, challenging, and incredibly rewarding. I have been given many opportunities to grow and learn new skills. When I was hired as the administrative assistant back in December 2018, I was NIAMRRE’s second employee. As we built NIAMRRE’s foundation and it began to grow, my job morphed and grew right along with it. I have seen the opportunities and taken them to learn new skills: website editing, HTML coding, email marketing, managing social media, and blogging. I have been nudged (okay, pushed) out of my comfort zone and have become more comfortable putting myself in front of an audience. Most importantly, I have been surrounded by the most amazing network of people.
By far the highlight of my time with NIAMRRE has been you, our members. This community of people includes some of the kindest, driven, and most passionate people I have ever met, and I never could have imagined how vast my network would become. You have always shown me incredible support and grace. Whenever I reached out to our members or stakeholders for help, I was never met with a “no,” but instead, with an eagerness to participate. With every new program or project I have launched, you have been there supporting me and cheering me on. The knowledge I have gained from working with you cannot be measured, and one of the greatest lessons you have shown me time and again is that quantity isn’t the greatest measure of success, but rather the quality. Thank you doesn’t seem adequate to express how grateful I am for the support, guidance, knowledge, and grace you have provided me.
The foundations have been laid for this community to make an incredible impact on this world. My hope for you is that you continue to grow and strengthen this community. Continue to break down the silos and truly work together across One Health. Never stop supporting and building each other up, just as you have all done for me.
Working with all of you has been a highlight of my career. I will miss seeing you on zoom calls, interacting with you at events, sending you all those emails, and most of all, serving you. Today as I turn the page and begin an exciting new chapter, I have no doubt that the cast of characters introduced in this last chapter will weave their way through the rest of my story.