THE GRAND PLAN

"Well, how are you feeling? Emotional? Excited?" I asked.

"Kind of strange," said Louise with a hint of sadness.

"Okay. How so?"

"I was clearing out my drawer and I found the starter letter which wished me a 'long and happy career' here..." she said, "And I dunno, I just thought it would be... longer."

Once again, I wasn't sure what to say. Today is Louise's last day of course, and her plan for 5 years had turned into 2.

She would have planned those 5 years meticulously as well. Unlike me, she's very driven towards the next step in her Grand Plan. If the road veers in an unexpected direction, she course-corrects at all expense, and gets it back on track.

I sat there wondering for a while why it is I don't have a Grand Plan.

I did once, but I kept changing it. I was going to be an architect, then a science journalist, then a song writer... Now that I'm older, it feels like my only real plan (and I am a song writer by the way, it just isn't my job) is to do something, anything, that makes me happy.

It doesn't feel very grand that plan; surely that's all anybody is doing! To make it a Grand Plan, I'd have to answer the 'how' question and make it more specific. And that isn't very easy, because the how question is quite painful.

Anyway, Grand Plan or not, today is about someone else's journey to future happiness and the steps they've taken to get there. And that is worth celebrating.

And so, the Card of Many Signatures has been round, the requisite gifts are waiting in a drawer and all that remains is the leaving presentation, which I've organised for 3pm and at which I'll do a little speech, Louise will do a little speech, everyone will clap politely and then we'll all disperse and that will be that.

On to the Grand Plan, I suppose.

If you have one.