August Great Story by Catherine Campbell-Orrock, Bay Area Fellow
I just want to tell you how I’m feeling: finishing up CivicSpark is surreal. For many of the fellows, this is our first full time job. The continuity, the forty hour week–it was all coaxing me into this sense of belonging, like it was going to last forever. Luckily for me, it kind of is. I have officially gotten a part-time internship working with Berkeley, and I couldn’t be more ecstatic. However, I am taking a month off to visit home, see my family, and spend some much-needed East Coast time before I begin. So it’s all very surreal–I am saying bye, but not really. Only for a while, but also will be a different role when I return……..it’s complicated.
Also, I know I want to make it a GOOD bye. This means no (or few) loose ends, no confusing spreadsheets without a methodology, no projects left hanging with no one to support them. I’m trying my absolute best to do this, but in reality, I am fighting a losing battle. There are always going to be projects unfinished, always going to be that spreadsheet or database only I understand. So thank goodness for phones, because my not-so-real good bye to my not-so-real vacation is going to turn into an tech-support-from-the-East-Coast. And I am absolutely alright with that. I like knowing that I am needed, and that there will be plenty for me to do when I return.
Gotta make you understand, I am sad to go. I am sad to complete this program, and am sad to be losing some of the CivicSpark support system I have helped build (although not entirely, Alumnae network!). I’m excited to start a new chapter of my life, but in the same place. This gives me the opportunity to grow but also grow deeper into where I am and who I am with. So thank you, CivicSpark for my launching pad, and thank you City of Berkeley for my soft landing.
