An Empty Cube

Over the last few months (really in October when I received my tentative offer), I've been slowly weeding through the last five years over paperwork I have carefully organized and hoarded. As of today... everything is either in the trash or neatly placed in a single box. I limited myself to one box for a reason, really what am I going to do with boxes filled with paperwork I will never look at ever again and am I really going to pay to relocate this stuff and have it sit in the back of my closet for months and last, Mom will kill me if I inundate her house with one more box.
Shout-out: Thank you to my sweet and patient momma and my dad for allowing me to keep an entire apartment worth of furniture and stuff in your basement! I love you both!

Going through all these drawers was bittersweet. Bitter because I weeded through documents of my very first PMF Job Fair. I had NEVER expereinced such an event, the planning and prepping and the managing. OH MY GOD. No one will ever truly understand the amount of effort that goes into events such as that one.

The very first local event I ever spoke at at George Mason, where I almost tripped over a cord in front of 50 people.

 My first out of state outreach event in Detroit, MI where I met the Director of the Department of Veteran Affairs, Secretary Shinseki, stayed in a gorgeous casino and had the opportunity to experience what it really meant to be a public servant and how passionate I am about working with people. I'll never forget sitting with my buddy George who was a former veteran for two hours and helping him go through his resume and helping to make himself marketable.

 I found my files for NOVA and the first official form I ever filled out that would pay for one of my college classes, instead of pulling out a loan (because of the graciousness of my office and my agency I was able to pay for my associate degree out of pocket), WOOOP! NO DEBT!

 I found pictures from various team building events, pictures at EMDC and the Orientation we held in Gettysburg; my very first a three day event (out of state) I will never forget. I'll never forget singing Karaoke with my team or leaving the training center and attempting to go to the near by outlets to pick up a birthday present for a colleague because I felt bad that they were celebrating away from home and I knew I personally would have appreciated the gesture, in the end I just turned back around because I was scared I'd lose my job if anyone found out I had left the site for too long (Hahaha!).

So many memories, blood, sweat, tears and hard hours put into the last five years. And now it is all coming to an end. HOWEVER, the sweet part is knowing that although I spent a good number of hours, days and sometimes week, even months frustrated and tired I loved all that I have been privileged to do.
 Second, I know that I am making the right move. Although I love what I have been doing, going through everything just excited me even more. I am excited to see where God takes me in the next month, the next year and I am anxious to see where I am at and how I look back at things in the next five years.

On Monday the 24th my paperwork was processed confirming my resignation. I can't pick the words to describe how it felt to open that email.

Only 3 days to go... No turning back now.

Notice & Looking Back

Well, on January 28th I officially gave my notice of resignation!! I sent the email at 9:06 this morning and received a response from my supervisor at 9:08 asking if there was any way she could talk me out of it...
We talked that afternoon and I explained that after quite a bit of praying, meditation I came to the conclusion that leaving my current position was the best thing for me. I don't want to get comfortable and complacent, and right now I am comfortable and that means its time to move on. Not to mention the idea of traveling and flying for a living gets me over the moon excited. I told my team this last week on February 6th. I don't think I could have been more nervous. Even if pretty much everyone already heard, it was now 100% official and there was no looking back at that point.  After over four and a half years, my government career is now coming to an end.

Looking back on my last four and a half years is such a mix of emotions. Not many people know this but I had originally enrolled on Liberty University and had every intention of going the Fall of 2009. Unfortunately, financial hardship hit my family and those plans fell through a month or less before graduation. What I didn't realize at the time was God had just set the stage for something huge. On a Friday in May I had set up an interview with Off Broadway at Potomac Mills for the following Monday. On Sunday I received a phone call from an incredible woman that has been like a second mother to me asking if I was at all interested in an internship with the Government, Oh! and it was a paid internship with career potential... OF COURSE I WAS INTERESTED. So I sent in my resume, had an interview and that was it! I graduated from High School on June 13, 2009, turned 18 on June 14, 2009, had my wisdom teeth pulled on June 15, 2009, went to Indiana on June 18, 2009, and started a full-time job with the Office of Personnel Management as a SCEP (Student Career Experience Program) on June 22, 2009.

At 18 years old I was working full-time for a Federal Agency and paying my way through college. In the spring of 2010 I worked my very first high end Job Fair. I had never seen anything like it. It was during that Job Fair that I managed over 50 GS-09/10/11/12 volunteers. Talk about scary, but it was such an experience. At the age of 19 I bought my very first car with my very own money and I didn't need a co-signer (the interest rate is brutal, but it happens), and I gave my very first public presentation to a room of 50 students at GMU; talk about nerve racking, I was absolutely terrified I'd have a former classmate in the room. Luckily, that was not the case. At age 20, I graduated from the Northern Virginia Community College with an Associates in Psychology and not a penny in debt. It may have taken me three years to get an associates degree but I take pride in knowing that I busted my tush for three years going to school full-time and just barely working full-time for OPM. I was granted time off to go backpacking with Nicholas through Europe for exactly a month ( a month with my brother that I wish cherish for life). I was sent on "Detail" to the Department of Veteran Affairs and assisted in standing up their new intern on-boarding initiative. I got back to OPM and then I was sent to travel for a week and a half around Texas and California giving presentations on Pathways into the Federal Government at colleges I wished I could have attended. Some of the schools in Texas are incredible! My favorite one to date is UT Brownsville, by far the most gorgeous campus. At age 21 I was given the responsibility to run and co-run 4 different sites across the US for 2 months, only seeing my family for max of 24 hours during the In Person Assessments. As a 21 year old GS-5 I was trusted to run and lead the Houston assessment center assessing a couple hundred people, keeping a schedule, and making sure I had enough GS-14s showing up to run the site in a weeks time. I've had my cell phone stolen twice on the job, once by a middle schooler and once by house keeping at a hotel. I quickly learned how to use the Find my iPhone app (I encourage everyone to load this onto your phones, LIFE/MONEY SAVER) I recovered my phone at least once.

Since the age of 19 I have been routinely going and giving Find and Apply Presentations to my peers at Colleges and Universities, to agency personnel, and to special interest groups. I have been afforded the opportunity to travel to 5 different states and 10 different Universities. I found my passion for public speaking, and my disdain for data entry. I found a career the blessed me in so many ways, how many other 22 year olds have a resume that is pushing 3.5-4 pages?

 In the last four and a half years, I have met some of the most incredible people that stepped in as mentors, friends, networks that I have turned to for assistance. The experiences that I have had and the people I have met have all impacted my growing up and they have each had a hand in raising me up during my young adult life. I cannot thank the people I have worked with and met along the way enough for being who they are and being there for me and with me through this part of my journey through life. OPM has been my home for the last almost 5 years, I am scared to leave my home, but I know that it is now time to set my fear aside, cling to my Lord and step outside my comfort zone and continue to grow and learn in a new environment.



-Cassie