Used To Be


About two years ago I was let go from a job I held down for six years. During those six years I picked up a few computer program skills and had to deal with some pretty whacky and adverse people and I’m not talking about the clients. It started me out higher than any of my jobs prior and closed me out higher than I ever made for just entering and maintaining data along with faxing, filing and scanning.  The actual work was hectic at times but it was the co-workers I found both interesting yet annoying.

  Over the course of the first year of being unemployed I waxed on about the struggles of trying to find work and wrote about how a handful of my least favorites met their demise. There was still a part of me that held some resentment even though I knew that a downward shift had taken place and that some big changes were surfacing.  Even though there was a heaviness and feeling of doom in the air I really did think I would be the last to go but as time went on and I heard throughout the two years that more and more were released I felt okay with not being there anymore.

  During the peak when it was crazy busy, expectations were raised and personalities clashed but I always felt secure there. Yes, I did moan and groan over the workload being dumped of the department I worked in and yes I sometimes pulled my hair out at some of the people I had to work with or learn how to get around them and them around me. There were times I actually enjoyed going to work, not so much though during the last eight months of my stay there.

   I just recently contacted someone who still works there and learned there are only four left and they will be moving to another location. It sadden me even though I  pretty much knew that what once was will not be again. I feel like a seasoned veteran in that area, having to say goodbye or let go of something that once was. It’s easy to romance the handful of good times and white out the annoying and frustrating times. I think we all do that.  I am a little sad inside even though I am relieved that I wasn’t there to watch as the work crew shrunk down to four.  I did make a few visits over the past year or so connecting with a few that still worked there and I definitely felt like an outsider there 5 months after leaving. For six years that was my stomping grounds and regardless of whether I liked it there or not or whether I can recall names I can pull up some memories.

   Everybody with the exception of three has moved on and at the close of this month it will be like the company I worked for never existed.  I don’t see any reason to go into that building anymore unless of course I want to walk around with ghosts of the past.  I have a lot of memories there but that is my past now and for everyone that worked there I am sure they will be able to pull up some really juicy story about someone.