Johnny Mac My Digital Self

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I know you've all wondered why I'm leaving Unite, especially as I've expressed such a great amount of feelings towards the Team and my time there. It's been a very hard choice for me to make, one that will have lasting repercussions throughout my life. I stood in front of a choice, one branch stayed here, the other went off into the wild blue yonder. Each had their own benefits and each their own drawbacks, opportunities that could forever alter my life.

One thing I'd like to make very clear, it wasn't about the money, not entirely. I'd be lying if I said it didn't matter at all, of course getting paid more is going to benifit me but if that where all I was after, then it would never have been a hard choice for me to make. Honestly, if I could take the people that matter to me most with me out there then this would be the most perfect event in my life, but sadly that was never an option for me. Over the time I worked for Unite I became very close to a number of people there, closer than I've ever allowed myself to get to any group of people in my life. Something you might never have guessed, or maybe you did, is that I'm a very insular person. While I enjoy the company of others I don't often seek it out of my own accord, usually it's something that gets thrust on me or I just kind of stumble on to it. Here it was something very different, each one of you that I worked with brought something different out of me, something that I either overlooked or never cared to look at before. You all changed me, for the better I say. That's why this was a hard choice for me to leave, the company I worked for could have been anything, doing anything, but it was the people there, those people with whom I spent the better part of my life these past months who I didn't want to leave behind. You all, each in your own way, mean so much to me.

I keep having to remind myself that this isn't the end. Past experience of me moving around has taught me that no matter how strong a connection I've had with some people when I left I lost contact with them. I must admit, the majority of when that happened has been before the advent of the Internet. I really do feel that this time it will be different. With so many tools to keep communication open, it'll only seem like I'm around the corner. I will however miss the fantastic office banter we all had, some of the funniest things I can remember in recent past have been in that office. Oh how I'll miss it.

But, I have to look to the future! So much adventure and opportunity await me, I'd be a fool to drown my self in sorrow over the past while I have so much ahead of me. This move to the UAE has come for me at the best possible time. Everything in my life is perfect to allow for me to take this chance, a chance that could secure my future and ensure that I can live a life like I've always wanted to. 2010 is the year I get a chance to launch my career higher than I though possible. Only a few years ago I was a High School dropout working a part time job in Dixons, with very little options open to me. But thanks to Parents who never gave up on me, who saw the potential I had inside, I was able to cast off that mantel of failure. I was once told by a High School teacher of mine that I "would never achieve anything in life..." How wrong she was!

I'm going to cut this short now, mostly because it's been very emotionally draining to write, but also because I think I should stop myself before I say anything I might be embarrassed about.... Imagine what I would have written if I drank!