The Change of the Guard

Yesterday, I walked through a former warehouse that is all but empty. Once home to hundreds of diverse employees, there are now less than fifty. A call center once brimmed with activity, and my first days with the company were spent there, because the Data Processing department was out of space.

I sat amongst a group of teenagers and barely-twenty-somethings, myself not being much older than them, but perhaps my life experience to date separated me.

As a current friend and former employee walked through this large, empty room, I told him a story of how the young call center women giggled when we bought a catalog which featured sexy men’s clothes, modeled by sexy, well endowed men. The newly acquired catalog, based in California, was very different from the many catalogs the company ran. There were so many unusual happenings with this company over the years, that some of us said had more lives than a black cat.

Walking through that building often filled me with memories in recent times. Perhaps it is because it is so empty, that it can hold endless stories.

People often say, “if I could write a book…”

Well, I can, and probably will, write a book about my experiences at the place where I worked for over twenty-five years. But for now, I catalog my last memory as an employee of this company. The memory of leaving it for the last time. The bittersweet feelings of leaving behind friends, of wondering what the future holds for them.

The conflicted thoughts that come with the change of the guard.

My future rests where the sun sets over a vast ocean, thousands of miles from where I now live.

My future rests with a young company that struggles to keep up with its growth. I know they will keep me busy, and challenge me in a hundred ways.

That’s my kind of challenge.