My Other Family

"Ten minutes after you're out the door, they forget all about you anyway."

This is what I've been known to tell my friends and colleagues who are letting work get the best of them and who are sacrificing their personal lives for the job. 

Having just left a job, I really hope they wait more than ten minutes to forget about me. 

It's hard to say good bye to our work family.  They really are a family.  I wonder if those in other professions really get as close to their colleagues as nurses do.  I think part of the reason that we get so close so fast is that we work in close proximity to each other and we have to create teamwork quickly and in very high-stress situations.  How many nurses have you bonded with over a code?  I bet there's a few. 

At least we have social media now.  I'll get to see photos of the babies born, houses built, and engagement/weddings of the nurses I just left.  It's not the same, though.  I like the day-to-day, hearing about their weekend, what their kids did, how their last day of work went. 

I'm moving across country from my actual family and that's been hard.  Leaving my other family, my work family, is hard, too.  I miss you guys already.