Below is my Google internal announcement of my resignation, verbatim.

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Folks,

I had meant to write this email sooner, but neglected to.

I've already given my notice and my last day will be this Friday, May 20th.

I know I haven't been here long, but I've come to the realization that it's time to leave.

As I prepare to depart, let me first apologize to my teammates for my mediocre performance. As you might imagine, when working my best, I can do far better. It's a poor excuse, I know, but my dissatisfaction kept me from putting in my best effort. Please forgive me.

Let me also apologize to HR and my manager, Stan, who spent a great deal of time trying to find someone suitable for my position, only to have me leave so abruptly. Best of luck in your search. With my greater knowledge of Google and the engineering positions within, I hope to refer suitable engineering candidates in the future.

To everyone: know that I sincerely appreciate your company and camaraderie. The level of mutual trust within this organization is excellent. I'm honored to have been welcomed into this community.

But why depart, you ask? Myriad reasons. In short: my expectations for Google did not match the reality. Having always worked for myself and never taken a salary, I suppose my expectations were unrealistic. I know that now.

As I first began to see through the silver lining, I was depressed. I thought my only option was to stay true to my fate: to weather the storm and tough it out. Feeling trapped, I wondered to myself, "Why aren't I fitting in and enjoying this life that so many others dream of?"

After wrestling with this for some time, I came to a moment of clarity: security and stability, the two things provided by a job at Google, are not what I seek. Far from it, in fact.

Instead, I chase freedom, impact, and challenge, in the grand hopes of leaving behind a legacy. Ambitious? Yes. Naive? Without a doubt. And yet I am who I am, and I'm at peace with that.

But could I truly afford to commit corporate heresy and resign so soon? Resign and walk away from this Nerdvana of high bandwidth, free food, and Google-scale deployments? The thought weighed heavily on my shoulders.

Google was to be my last watering hole before I struck out into the desert, forever. I had planned to stay here for some time, reflecting and honing my skills before departing to seek my own fortune. But would it be so terrible to cut that one final step short? No, I realized, because I was only waiting to leave until I was ready. Now, feeling confident and ready, albeit ahead of schedule, the time has come for me to go.

And yet, despite all this heroic talk, it was a surreal, bittersweet moment for me tour the Mountain View campus last week, knowing that I would never return. After I took in the TGIF presentations and admired Sergey and Larry's brotherly rapport, I walked off to the shuttle stop as the sun began to set and was suddenly struck by the need to weep.

Such a grand organization that Sergey and Larry have built -- a living, breathing, happy community, touching the lives of billions. And amazingly, it still remained quirky and playful, despite having over 25,000 members in the family.

I was to leave this all behind? Was I mad?

No. For I had made the same decision some years prior, opting to leave behind life as I knew it in American high school in favor of a homestay in China.

Why leave a comfortable life, you ask? For me, it was exactly because it had become comfortable! Without something greater to strive for, what is life? With this thought, I realized that life is for challenge, not comfort, and so challenge I sook.

Now, if Larry and Sergey were to die right this very instant, they would leave behind a legacy, a "dent in the universe," in the words of Steve Jobs. Their story has been told. They have entered the pantheon.

And so I have come to terms with my own path: I am to do the same, to seek out my own glory rather than to reap the benefits of their triumph.

Thus, as all things must come to an end, so must my time at Google.

Best of luck to everyone. I hope we meet again.

Sincerely,
David

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Very excited for the future. Wish me luck, everyone.