In May of 2022, my colleagues threw me a retirement party. There was a banner. There were balloons. There were kind words and a cake. It was, by all accounts, a proper sendoff.
I came back to work a couple of years later.
I am not entirely sure what that says about me, but the people in this photo were gracious enough not to mention it. They smiled, they celebrated, and when I showed back up at the office sometime later, they were kind enough to act surprised.
This was retirement attempt number one. I want the record to show that I did eventually figure it out. But I will always be grateful to these people for sending me off in style, even if the sendoff did not quite take the first time.
Some things are worth celebrating twice.
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