"What are you going to do now?"

Ben, I can't tell you how many times I've had to answer that question. Whenever people around here hear that I'm quitting, the first question is usually "Why?"


My answer to that question is "Because it's my one-year anniversary. When I started I gave myself one year to play grown-up and then I'd leave."


That answer usually leads to blank stares. After the person stops trying to figure out whether I'm joking or serious, the second question is "What are you going to do now?" The answer to that question is another I greatly enjoy giving and, coincidently, the same thing I'm going to have chiseled on my tombstone:


"I don't know."


Most of the people around here have a very difficult time hearing this, and if I were to judge by their facial expressions, for very different reasons.


In general, they look at me like I'm a fool. This only reinforces my belief that I'm doing exactly the right thing.


Well, I have to go. I'm at work. That's right. Let them catch me. What are they going to do to me that I haven't already done to myself?