Serving for these last seven years as first minister of Scotland has been the biggest privilege of my life.
It has been an extraordinary time for me personally, for the party I have led and for the country as a whole.
And Scotland, I believe, is a much, much more confident and forward-looking nation that it was when I took office in 2007.
That is not a consequence of one person or one party’s leadership – rather, it is the natural result of a process which has been ongoing since our national parliament was restored in 1999.
However, I am happy to look back with a lot of satisfaction on what has been achieved in the last seven years.
Our economy is in sound shape, recovering well from the financial crisis and in spite of Westminster’s agenda of deep and prolonged austerity cuts.
The right to a Scottish university education based on the ability to learn rather than the ability to pay has been restored after we abolished tuition fees.
This at a time when fees have soared to £9,000 a year in other parts of the UK, putting university out of reach for many without the means to pay.
At the same time, we have boosted apprenticeship numbers to record levels, brought more women into the workforce and are outperforming the rest of the UK on job numbers as whole.
We’ve delivered a record number of police officers on our streets and have seen crime fall to a near 40-year low.
We’ve also tackled the cost of living for ordinary people across Scotland by freezing the council tax, scrapping bridge tolls and abolishing prescription charges.
The last seven years have also seen Scotland take more of a prominent role on the global stage.
We have been praised internationally for our world-leading climate change targets and our revolution in green energy.
We have had successive Years of Homecoming when we have welcomed back many thousands of diaspora Scots and those with a close affinity to the country.
And we also presided over two fantastic global sporting events this summer, with both the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup coming to Scotland.
And while the referendum campaign did not deliver the result that myself and others in the Yes campaign were hoping for, it did spark the most unprecedented level of democratic engagement, of a kind seldom if ever seen before.
That engagement means the people of Scotland are now fully expecting the Westminster parties to deliver on their promises of serious and substantial new powers for the Scottish Parliament.
Above all, it has been a privilege to represent the north-east of Scotland while serving as first minister – something that I look forward to continuing to do.