Last Day - an open letter to my Apple family

"Nothing compares
No worries or cares
Regrets and mistakes
They are memories made.
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste..."
- Adele

Last day at Apple tomorrow. The very definition of bittersweet. They say your friends are the family you choose. It's the most honest statement I've ever heard. Thank you to my Apple family... near and far... for everything you have meant and will continue to mean to my heart and soul. I couldn't have chosen any better if I had handpicked all of you myself. You've changed my life. That's not lip service. That's fact. You always let me be me, even when that meant dealing with me being obnoxious and loud and crass. Actually, especially then :) I've never had to pretend with you. You've allowed me to be fully myself, scars and all, and I have learned what true comfort feels like. I now know what absolute acceptance looks like. That's what you've meant to my life.

"I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...

...  It well may be

That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made from what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...

... Who's to say if I've been changed for the better?

Because I knew you... I have been changed for good."

- from Wicked

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for changing me for good. 

As a wise man once said, "Stay hungry. Stay foolish."

You're the hungriest, most foolish bunch of crazy people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. I always said that, even on our worst days, there was always laughter... and lots of it. Over the last two years, that laughter was the greatest gift you gave me. As most of you know, this past year has not been an easy one for me. So much has been unknown and difficult and, at times, very scary. But there was always a place I could go to where people accepted me without hesitation, where they loved me with abandon and they hugged me and made me laugh without fail... and that place was called "the bar" :)

Oh, and Apple :)

I love you guys... more than you know.

Jen