Shelter Shoes

I threw away my shelter shoes today.
This last Saturday was my last day as an employee at the Colorado Humane Society. The separation was bitter sweet- I have been at the shelter so long that it is part of who I have become. I love my friends there and the dogs, but I just couldn't do it anymore. The people that come into that place have become more than I can handle anymore. Of course there are great people looking to adopt pets, but lately it seems like they are far outnumbered by scum of the earth people who have no respect for their lives let alone that of a defenseless animal. When I started at the shelter I was just learning about "customer service" and I had a bright outlook and hope for everything. The more time that went by, the more jaded I got- to the point where I was constantly on the defense and surprised when people were really nice to me. Lately, I have noticed that I have become like that even when I'm not at work. The job was destroying my view of people in general, and that scares me because I know I am a nice, upbeat person. The past few weeks I found myself dreading going in for work and counting the hours until it was over, and that's how I knew I was done. It's been 5 years- and this is a hard job. It's a heavy burden to bear and I don't know how the other people at the shelter have been doing this full time for so much longer.
Of course I plan on volunteering as often as possible, but this way it will be on my own time and I can enjoy the parts of the shelter that I love and step back from the parts that are bringing me down. I do have a spare pair of shelter shoes...
In the meantime, I feel like I am in a huge transition in my life. I will be done with school next semester and I feel the change coming. I've been cleaning my house all day and I finally completely emptied my suitcase from Italy. Yep. Took me 3 months... but now it's in my closet. After all of this change this weekend I feel an odd sense of calm and transition, and I think it's going to be really good.