Life Is a Playground

Life Is a Playground
Some days you are the waterfall, some days the lake; and some days you are the sheep on an island staring all the water

Be like water and find your own way of living.

When Office Space comes to life, you know you've found your peace. My job search took a turn. I have been through so many rejections that I started to go inward.

What do I want from a job?

What skill can I learn from it?

What can a job offer me?

I was scanning the job ads and the job tasks. They are getting longer nowadays. I realized they want me to do enough work for three people.

I have been there, done that. Don’t want that, thanks!

The freedom of my mind is not for sale. A fraction of my time is all I can offer. I was looking and searching for a new job, and it got worse and worse. My skin crawled. I thought about quitting, but in this economy?

It felt scary.

Then one day, at work, my manager called me in for a meeting. He offered the opportunity for a future promotion to become a manager. He wanted to give me more responsibility, but first, I had to show them I could breathe in this job.

I was not! I wanted less of it. It’s been four months since I told him I want to work less. He still gave me more hours to work than I signed for.

I already felt I had abandoned my time with the kids, my time to write, to think, to live, and to be present.

I was a manager before. I went back to hospitality after working in the entertainment industry, branding, creating campaigns, and trying the Tech start-up life, so I can have more free time, a clear headspace.

And here we are again.

That moment, I realized this was my time to stand up for myself. It was crazy, but my intuition told me that I’m doing the right thing, and everything is going to be better. So I quit.

First time in my life, I quit a job. Not for another job, not because I can afford it, only for my sake of sanity. I quit because I have self-respect. I quit because I knew life would get better than this.

First time in my life I felt so fcking liberated.

I felt light as a feather.

This heavy monster sitting on my shoulder, this hopeless feeling inside me started to shrink. The match that was meant to burn me out disappeared.

I was wearing the same big smile on my last shift as I wore on my first — like a perfect circle.

It sounds crazy.

I felt confident, I knew something good was on its way. I felt peace and wanted to keep that peace at all costs. Obviously, a few people around me thought I went crazy and I’m being irresponsible, selfish, or lazy.

I did enter my bitchy era.

I want good company, freedom, just enough money, and a job I like.

If that’s crazy, call me crazy — like I care.

Being in the right place at the right time:

After my last shift, I threw a farewell party for myself. When I was in the bar, I felt calm and thought I could work here. They had lots of good initiatives, they do Corporate Social Responsibilities.

Applied for a job. I got it within a week.

Here we go.

Thanks for reading me.