Never thought I would see a box in these colors again.
Keep in mind that this box was bigger than what it should have been. It included the one thing I wanted sent from my previous employer, and it included a bunch of crap that I asked be discarded on site. I explained to several people, on several occasions, that what I left behind I didn't want. If someone else needed them, they could use them. Whoever packed the box packed what I wanted and promptly used that other stuff as packing material.
Which, of course, caused quite the flashback.
I wanted to be bigger, though, so I responded to the two messages you see above in text messages to the people who wrote them. One isn't signed, but I know who he is.
No acknowledgment of the texts from either one.
To be honest, I have sent folks from that branch text messages just after leaving, with very limited response. Two people know me on Facebook, so we can stay in touch one way or another. But the others have completely ignored me. I'm always a little stunned by this, given how much I used to do for the people who worked for me.
I try to rationalize it. It doesn't work. I've often thought of just walking in on them one day to say hi, but honestly...would any of them care one way or the other? Two of them would, but we see each other on Facebook.
About a month out, I talked to the Airman about this. He said it would probably just be best to stay in touch with those who wanted to, and to not walk back in that building. He wasn't trying to protect me, he just didn't see the point.
If nothing else, this will teach me not to look back. I have a whole new set of "coworkers" now in the Meetup writing sessions that I attend, and some of them I see over and over. Others I saw twice and they disappeared. It teaches me, once again, not to take things for granted. To take in and relax with every interaction, and to appreciate people for as long as I get to know them. This will also teach me how much weight to give people...differing degrees of commitment from others should grant me options in how much commitment I portion out to others. When I worked with my last employer, I had these nightmares where I would work the counter or phones alone, with no employees. And then it really happened, during a little period expansion, and it happened for a month. I learned that I could do it, but that I shouldn't do it. There are limits to health. And I crossed them. Several times.
Given that I have been deserted while I worked with these people (I won't discuss how that happened when I broke my hand) and that it took them over two months to send the one thing I wanted from Oakland to San Francisco (and the fact that they didn't listen and included about twelve things I didn't need when I finally did get it), tells me that that part of my life is over, regardless of how desperate in the employment department I get.
Onward, dear reader.
P.S. - This is where the title of today's post of Life For Rent comes from. It seemed extreme...for only about a minute. "I won't let you close enough to hurt me." Again.
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