You're Fired! The Apprentice Way

It was just like yesterday, when they called us one by one, through our mobile phones. Instructing us to proceed to 13th Floor (Is it me? Or is this someone’s idea of a sick joke... 13th floor?), to be told that our services were not needed anymore.

 

But it was not yesterday. It was more than two years ago. The pain maybe gone, but the memory will always remain. How can you forget the faces of friends, that just a few days ago were full of laughter and hope? Laughter... Because most of them knew nothing of what was going to happen. Hope because a few of us knew. And those few silently prayed that some cosmic divine intervention would somehow stop the inevitable.

 

But it came. Like a silent plague through the night. There was no warning. We were like lost souls seeking each other to find some hint of strength. That somebody would tell us that it was only a mistake. Even a joke that they were just testing us would somehow sound better, than being let go. We were like school kids sent to the principal’s office to be expelled. Because the school thought, that we were not worthy of their education anymore.

 

They paid good money though. But money can never bring back missed birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas, the first walk of a child or the first mama and dada. And all those special moments that were lost forever. Because we were on the job, doing what we were assigned to do, doing what we love. Can money bring back those years? Because if it can, why would I write this now.

 

On that very last day, I stayed until 12:00MN I wasn’t doing anything in particular. I just wanted to feel my office for the very last time, which I considered my second home for more than 5 years. I was listening to my radio when this song came up…

 

“Of all the things I believe in. I just want to get it over with, tears from behind my eyes but I do not cry, counting the days that past me by. I've been searching deep down in my soul. Words that I'm hearing are starting to get old. Feels like I'm starting all over again. The last three years were just pretend and I say… Goodbye to you. Goodbye to everything I thought I knew. You were the one I love. The one thing that I tried to hold on to…”

 

I just realized that tears were flowing freely down my face. I stood up looked around for the last time, and left.