I looked around the office. Everyone was in their seats: The health editor was bent over a manuscript; the lifestyle editor flipped through blogs in search of her next story; the market editor hunted down gloves for an upcoming shoot. Normally, I would just keep myself planted there, to be part of the team, to be there even if I had nothing pressing for the next day. But not today. Why? Because sometimes you have to leave on time, just because you can.
And so I did the thing I might not have done a year ago: I shut down my computer and walked out in full view before 7:00 p.m., leaving everyone at their desks, the office lights blazing overhead. I felt a little bad in a way, to leave when no one else had budged. But then I remembered the many, many nights when I was the last one there. Those nights, I tell myself, were not for nothing.
I swung my tote bag over my shoulder and headed out.
Sometimes you have to take one for the team, sure, and push hard, long past the time you’d normally stop. But on other nights, when it’s time to go, it’s time to go.
When was the last time you left somewhere when you said you would, without looking back?