The scariest moment is always just before you start. – Stephen King

After 15 years of training, qualifying and working, my chosen career and I are finally going our separate ways. It had not been an easy fit for quite some time. Last Friday was my last day, after opting for voluntary redundancy. I am luckier than many, in that I chose to go, even if the circumstances which led to that decision were not of my making. Yet I find myself in a strange place right now, feeling a sense of loss, a lot of fear, a bit like a boat cast adrift and wondering which direction the shore is in.

The most poignant image of recession I've seen so far - in the window of a local shop closing down. Me and the teddy had much in common on Friday when I took this picture.

Over the last few weeks and months, I've been looking for advice and tips from others who have been through this experience before me. I can find plenty of legal advice, financial advice, careers and CV advice - but nothing so far on the emotional impact, on how redundancy affects your sense of self, nothing to prepare you for the highs and lows. (If you find any, please share with me!)  And that's what has inspired this blog. I'll refer to useful practical sources when appropriate, but really plenty of other people do that better than me. What I want to do is motivate myself (and if by doing so I can motivate others, all the better), and prove that redundancy can be an opportunity. I look forward to recording the journey here, and hopefully hearing about others' stories too.