1229blog
Goodbye Forever
I recommend this to everybody to go up to your boss and look him or her square in the eye and say “I quit” and it will be your rescue and your life will once again by your own, at least in a relative way.
“I quit,” two of the finest, most beautiful and most descriptive and concise words in the English language and with those words I floated away on a cushion of the softest air I had ever felt, my feet firmly off the ground and I saw my responsibility peel off of me and weights fell to the side and in a word, it was heaven.
You know who you are but at the time of my departure so many years ago, I didn’t speak my mind mainly because I just wanted out as fast as my feet walking on air would take me. If you were in front of me now, I would tell you that I have had enough of your controlling, condescending and petty ways and I quit. I will not subject myself to your whims and your personality that changes like people change their socks and I will no longer keep my mouth shut as I am assaulted by your unfounded and petty criticisms while my salary remains at a pauper’s level and you’re not very smart anyway so, in a few words, I quit.
Before that magnificent moment, I would think about it a lot, never coming to the point of no return. I grumbled to myself, felt my bile rising and saw my days going by like the leaves that fall from dead trees.
I will never forget the look on your face when I quit and I have rarely felt so relieved and convinced that I did not have to have a reason, at least I was not required to explain anything and could simply say “I quit” and dance away into the night to the music of freedom. It took me quite a few years to realize that I was not indebted to the company, that I was not somehow their chattel and that in fact, I was a free, independent person who could and did say “I quit.”
I didn’t have to make believe for one more second that I bought into it all and I didn’t pain myself for even another moment about what I would do now because I had finally understood that my future is my decision and not to be made by anyone else. And it took a while to realize that the company was in no way my family unless it was a dysfunctional family and I wanted a divorce so I finally gathered the strength and awareness to understand I had the power to say “I quit.” I also came to the realization that I did not have to have another job in the wings and that having nothing planned was not a reason to keep myself in chains so I marched up to the office, knocked on the door and announced “I quit.”
And I’ve been thinking about other things to quit and one idea is to quit reading the news, totally, avoid anything in a newspaper or on any media outlet and see if I can survive. I know people who are absolutely unplugged from the events of the day and they seem to be less stressed, have fewer deep lines in their brows and are doing just fine and so, why can’t I? Imagine the relief of not reading the latest on COVID 19 deaths or the details of that car crash that sliced the car in two and killed the four young people inside or the almost-no more president’s childish ravings and orders and the latest famines in Africa or the ongoing fighting between warring factions that leaves women and children sliced and diced to death or the doomsday projections for a planet that won’t stop burning it up. I don’t need to be a slave to the ills of the planet as defined by other people.
No I think I can do without that too so, “I quit.”
Other things to quit: I will write the IRS a brief letter informing them that I will no longer be paying my income taxes because “I quit.” I will visit the motor vehicles office one last time to let the bureaucrats know that I will no longer be spending an inordinate part of my life waiting for inspection because “I quit.” I will leave the flyers unopened in their plastic bags that pileup in my driveway and I will just quit caring.
No longer will I be a slave to the rules that I have not helped to create, have had no ability to change or that I am convinced are both totally absurd and unfair and take way too much energy from my precious life, so “I quit.” And I won’t listen to all you naysayers who tell me I can’t do this or I can’t do that because my freedom is too threatening to you and you know it may force your own hand about your own future and to you, I say, “I quit” and so should you. I quit being shackled to anything just because I can’t imagine not being shackled. And sorry, but I won’t remain in your presence and under your rule because I lack self-confidence, and instead, I will clearly see my value and I can tell you in no uncertain times and I’ll scream it from the top of Mount Everest that “I quit.”
I am going to keep all these things in mind because one thing I vow not to quit is to say “I quit” whenever it becomes necessary.
Now that I vented, I feel a little better.
So wherever you are, whatever language you speak, whether it’s “I quit;” “irten, Basque;” “odustati, Biosnian;” “deixar, Catalan; “lascia, Corsican; “afslut, Danish;” “quitter, French;” verlassen, German”; or “slutten, Norwegian,” a Rose by any other name smells just as sweet.