Dear Day Jobbe:
Friday is my last day. I have four days of work left. Four. Days. If I had no actual projects to do, I would still be able to keep more than busy weeding and moving computer files to the shared drive, writing cheat sheets and instructions for all the things that I do, weeding and sorting paper files, and going through the piles of paper on my desk–as you have asked me to do.
Or, I might be able to do more of the Research Project of Impossibility, to at least demonstrate the impossibleness of it. Or, I could keep on with the 100-page (with 600 references) review article Boss Man wants done. Or, I could help solve the supplies problem, or get the phosphorimager service contract dealt with, or follow up on the task list and weed out the email, or hunt down that subcontract we keep not hearing back on, or any of the other fourteen things you desperately asked me to do yesterday.
But I can’t do it all. I just can’t. I have four days left. I’m only one person. I’m stressed out. My boyfriend has cancer. I got three crappy hours of sleep last night. I can’t fix the situation at work, and I can’t keep trying. I quit this job, remember? I can’t fix it. I care about you guys, I really do. I’m sorry the situation here is so broken. I’ve worked really hard over the last four years to try to fix it, but the larger world keeps breaking it, in ever more spectacular and horrific ways. I’m sorry about that. But I have to go now.
Yours,
Very Stressed Witch
*****
Dear Self:
Reread this as needed for the next four days. Maintain sanity. It will all be over soon, and you can get on with the rest of your life.
Love,
Witch