Endings

Endings are haaaaaaard. Way back in March my temporary project contract that I was working on came to an end, and I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I have never been so sad about anything work related coming to an end. Man I LOVED that project - it might have been small in length but it was big on inspiration. 

I was hired for a research and consultation exercise, and the research side of it was the usual kind of stuff: lots of internet searching, lots of putting reports together, lots of facts and figures and statistics. But the consulting was what really made it for me. I got to go to all these amazing groups and meet people with differing levels of visual impairment, some members were totally blind and had been since birth, and talk to them about art and their perceptions of art and how they felt about visiting galleries and museums. More often than not the talk would turn to other topics and general chit-chat and each and every time I came out of those consultation meetings feeling both humbled and inspired by the amazing people, still working hard to tackle everyday life despite the massive obstacle of zero/failing sight facing them. 

I even helped to run an art workshop, where working with these same people, we all worked together to create some fabulous artwork using all sorts of different materials. In that session, I blindfolded myself and painted a tree using string and blu-tack and touch to feel the outline and splodge the paint - trust me when I say that was a pretty amazing experience! 

So why am I just talking about this now? Well, recently, I met my boss to return the equipment and say goodbye I guess, even though I know we will keep in touch. The project is absolutely over and therefore our working relationship is too. As with the project ending, I felt the same way about this boss too. In all my working life I've never worked for anyone that I truly respected, admired, and felt inspired by, until this project. It's tough to not get too soppy about it all, but I'll tell you a little secret: we did that already! I miss working with her very much, and our weekly meetings where we talked about all kinds of everything. It's all kinds of awesome to work for someone who you feel is that kind of awesome. It's like, ohhhh, so that's what that feels like!

We had a lovely coffee and catch up, we visited an art gallery which was just like being back at work again cos we did lots of that when I worked on the project, and we said our goodbyes. Waaaaahhh, endings suck! There's no point wishing for things that didn't happen, we didn't get the funding, the end. I'm keeping the faith though, you never know what's round the corner and maybe we'll get to work together again. Until then we have coffee and catch ups and very, very fond memories. A fitting ending to an end I think.