The Hardest Word - Goodbye

Sameer Puri D.D.S.

13 years ago

Typically it's my wife or kids that tear up in the face of emotion. Today, however, was one of those days that I got teary-eyed. Today was the day that I said goodbye to my staff at my dental office. As many of you know, I'm relocating to Scottsdale with my family to spend more time working at the Center, manage all the work that goes along with running cerecdoctors.com, and minimize the travel that's associated with all the lectures and courses.

I'd known this day was coming, but I guess I didn't really realize how unprepared I was for it. I've been at my office for 14 years. Over the years I've had a tremendous amount of fun growing the practice and taking care of patients. We've had some good team members and we've had some bad team members. I have to say that the team that I've had the chance to work with over the past six years has been second-to-none.

So when it came time at lunch to say goodbye, I had a whole speech prepared. I had outlined in my mind all the things I was going to say. I'm a professional speaker for god's sake; how hard could it be?

Well, I guess you don't realize how unprepared you are for goodbye until it's time to say goodbye. I mean if I hated these people and simply showed up to work just to get a paycheck, goodbye would have been easy. But my team have been my friends. We've been bowling together. We've been to Vegas together. I've enjoyed beers with them, had margaritas with them. They've watched my girls grow up.

They are family and I will miss every single one of them. At lunch, I could barely get words out. Anyone who tried to speak was the same way. No one wanted to speak for fear of losing it in the restaurant.

There is nothing worth doing if you don't put your heart and soul into it. I put my heart and soul into my practice and my team. I know they are sad to see me leave as am I to go, but I hope that in some way I have managed to touch their lives and leave a lasting memory.

Even though we are moving and the kids will be starting school in another state in a few weeks, I plan on coming back to the office and visiting. I plan on helping out whenever I'm needed. I wish my team - my friends - the best.