I will miss these people

Last week I finished my last trip to Chicago to fulfill obligations to ALA.  I still have a little under two months to go, concluding my work at the end of the annual conference in Philadelphia next month.  And I have to say, it's been a turbulent three years of work with ALA.  I still believe in the association and what it can and should do, but I will be happy to walk away from the work and eventually become nothing more than a regular paid member.  And I will never return to the divisions.  Seriously?  Fuck them.  Maybe one day I will edit that last bit.

But I will miss these people.  Oh, I know that I will see them at conferences and outside of ALA.  For sure I will.  But gone will be the morning walks.  The meals.  The evening drinks.  We've built up real bonds, friendships.

My cohort:  Sara,

Kathy,

Amy,

Karen,

as well as Emily.  Plus there's Sam. 

And Peter. 

And the others, like Steven

and Sophia and Stephanie and Corinthia and Nick and Cindy and am I forgetting anyone?  But my cohort are the most special to me, I admit, and I will miss them most.

Thanks to all of them for riding out these past years with me.  We all needed each other.