This is my last day of work this quarter as I start my sabbatical at 5 o'clock today. I'll be gone for the next six weeks, away from SQLServerCentral, trying to improve and grow myself while staying as unwired as I can during that time. The rest of the staff here at SQLServerCentral will pick up the load, and I'm sure everything will be fine.

This is a bit scary for me. I've pretty much been employed full time since I was 17, only taking a few, short, involuntary stretches of unemployment in almost 30 years. Even during those times without a job I was focused on finding a job almost every day, so it felt as if I still had the job of finding a job during those times. I'm nervous about taking the time off, and certainly worried a bit about SQLServerCentral as I'm not sure I've been away from the site for more than a week since it was founded.

This is a temporary farewell, as I'm planning on being back on July 14th, just in time to head to the UK for SQL Bits. I'll likely be doing a touch of writing, and trying to get a little coding done on some side projects, but for the most part I won't be answering email or checking on the site. That alone will be a good test of my personal growth. If I can avoid www.sqlservercentral.com, I think I'll be doing well.

For those of you that are interested, I'll be posting on my blog, under the sabbatical tag. I'm trying to document some of my adventures, and hopefully I'll have something to show for my efforts at the end. I'm nervous, but also a little excited. Six weeks to work on some projects away from work seem like a dream on top of my already amazing dream job.