So, I’m in a car, heading to Queensland for the traditional Chrismas family get-together-play-nice-fun-and-games. Hooray for long battery life, iTunes and sitting in the back seat. After two weeks, I’ll be jetsetting away to the states, courtesy of some accumulated and expiring parental frequent flyer points…

Coming off the ISG’s offsite, things seem a little surreal. I can’t believe my time at Westpac has come to a (temporary?) end. I can’t really place what happened to the scared 19 year old 2nd year student who walked into the BT Financial Group in January 13. It seems like I’ve come so far, and yet what have I really achieved? I’ve got some experience, done some things, learnt some skills, made some friends, but it still seems so transient and ethereal.

The offsite was a fantastic time (Thamnks Jackie O!), with a cruise and a night in Terrigal mixed in between team building exercises (first towerbuilding, then paper-glider building), two trivia competitions (both fraught with fraud, graft and general fun) and serious conversations about who we are, where we’re going and how we’re going to get there. Once we’ve fought for relevance after a few crucial changes, this team is going to be a driving force for good change. The trick is in ensuring that the boys with the political strings don’t horse trade us away.

[See? I’m still using “we”; it’s going to be hard to learn that I’m not a part of this team anymore. :( ]

But to anyone from the ISG who reads this: thank you. Every word in that last email was genuine. I truly believe that this is the best InfoSec team I’ve seen, that we’re on the right track, and that I learnt everything good I know from you or beside you. Thanks for the tolerance, the good times and the support in the bad. I’ll miss working beside you, and I’ll see you soon as I escape the clutches of US Customs. :)

And now to a new chapter, starting at the bottom of the pile again and earning all that reputation again. I’m looking forward to a fresh start and new teams, and I have high hopes for what I can give, and learn.

Anybody got any good ideas for what I should propose to do for my thesis?