Into the great wide open
I posted this photo a while back on the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I am posting it again today. Why? Because it kinda fits my life today.
I was laid off from my job today. I AM NOT UPSET! I was planning to retire anyway but was lollygagging. Due to complicated work circumstances that I won’t even try to explain (not bad things), this was not really unexpected. Except that getting the call is somehow always unexpected. You’re going along engaging with your colleagues and then… You’re not.
I more or less fell into this job 18 years ago. I wasn’t really looking for a job but I figured out PDQ that I had landed in a good place. For example, when The Commander was nearing the end of her life, there was a period of months when I was hanging out in the yooperland helping her out. I was “telecommuting” (I have always been able to telecommute but didn’t do it permanently until covid) but I wasn’t all that productive during that time. And guess what? My then boss the LSCHP allowed me time and space to deal with my mom (“family is first” was one of his mantras). He knew I would become productive again when it was all over, and I did. When I finally returned to the OFFICE, my cube was decorated with crepe paper streamers and there was a LADDER in it. Which he (rightly) knew I would find hilarious.
I will have some processing to do but I am okay. I told my boss something like, “I am an adult and I have a great life and I can carry on.” And I will.
I don’t really know what’s next (don’t ask, please). But a couple hours after I shut down my work laptop forever, I got an email from my first cousin Uber Kayak Woman. We are very very close but we don’t communicate all that often. This email came through Ancestry and noted that we matched as first cousins. Yes (LOL), she taught me and our other “triplet” cousin how to climb out of our cribs when we were toddlers. I’ve done the Ancestry spit-test but I am mostly a wee bit of a dabbler. But whether or not I get more into genealogy, the message was well-timed. There’s more out there for you to do, KW.
Love you all! And onward.
November 19th, 2025 at 12:13 pm
I am sorry. Although it may not have been unexpected and you do have a great life, we always want to go out on our own terms. And I don’t think you were quite ready to do that. Big hugs from afar!
November 20th, 2025 at 10:09 am
I don’t like the suddenness of this but it’s not a surprise either. It would have been more gracious of your employer to handle it another way, but business is not in the business of being gracious. Your attitude is good. Of course. You knew retirement was in the relatively near future but while “tomorrow” is technically the future so is 2 weeks from now.
But you’re not whining and I won’t either. I will point out that unfortunately for you you’re not gaining much in this change. I at least avoided an unpleasant commute to and from work (you don’t commute), I got to sleep in later (maybe not a factor for you b/c of the aforementioned non-commute), and I got to separate (physically) from one particularly unpleasant coworker (who still pops up regularly in my dreams to remind me of how unpleasant she was).
You will find new interests. And you will always have good memories of a satisfying job well done!