I knew I was an emotional person, but all of these goodbyes are really getting to me. This week some of our bestest friends surprised us with a going away party with a lot of our Quad City friends. I was totally surprised, and instantly got choked up. I didn’t think I would have the time or the energy to plan a proper goodbye in town, so Jay and I are very grateful for our friends that took it upon themselves to plan everything without me having to put an ounce of energy into it. Really going to miss them.

And then today I had to give my goodbye speech to my co-workers in Treasury. Again, lots of tears. I didn’t make it through my first sentence without shedding a tear, and cried throughout the whole thing. It wasn’t a very composed speech, but it came from the heart. I know I am so fortunate to have had the pleasure of working in such an awesome department for 4.5 years. Since many of my blog readers have gone through Treasury over the years, but weren’t at the goodbye presentation today, I wanted to share what I had to say. I am really going to miss Treasury!

Here’s the speech, and yes I realize that it is kind of cheesy…

A few weeks ago I was shopping at Wallace’s and I saw this adorable sign that said, “just when the caterpillar thought her life was ending she turned into a beautiful butterfly.” That phrase struck a chord in me, and if I think back about my life, I could apply those words to describe many situations I have found myself in. I think that the first 8 years of my career at Deere, I was a caterpillar.
Many of you have probably heard me say this, but for those of you that haven’t, I came to treasury kicking and screaming. I was terrified of everything about the place. It was finance, and by golly I was an accountant. It was full of workaholics, and some of the smartest people in the company. I had no idea what a derivative, a yield curve, or a conduit was. Pretty sure I didn’t even know what commercial paper was. But I was kind of stuck. I could either live in Waterloo without my husband for an unknown period of time, or I could suck it up and go work in Treasury. So, on April Fools Day in 2009, I officially became a treasury employee. I literally thought my career was over, because I was most certainly going to fail. I even asked Steve Holmes, one of our former Directors, what my backup plan would be if things didn’t work out. The thing is, nobody in treasury was going to let me fail. Everyone, in a way, was building me a cocoon. Over the 4.5 years that I have been here, I feel like I have grown more as an employee and a person than I ever thought imaginable. Thank you all for helping me spread my wings.
I am looking at this next chapter in my life in much the same light. Am I nervous about packing up my husband and kids, leaving my home, my friends, my family, my dog, and my Treasury behind and move to the other side of the world? Absolutely. But I would be a fool not to give it a whirl.
And of course, if anyone wants to make the 24 hour trip to Australia, you have a place to stay. 🙂