Rant #3,050: Life Goes On

 

“O-Bla-Di, O-Bla-Da, Life Goes On.”

We all remember that Beatles’ song from so long ago, but it is still so true.

We enter a new year, and life just continues as it has been, or at least continues for most of us.

I heard yesterday from a former co-worker of mine, someone who I worked with probably 15 years ago or so, and I heard from her through an email message sent to my email address through LinkedIn, a site that I have not been on in ages … since right after I became officially “retired.”

She wanted to know all about what happened to the company we both worked for at one time, and had heard that I was looking for work.

I replied to her, and did it as concisely as I could:

“I went down with the Titanic on October 10, 2019. The then-owners refused to sell the company, so the six of us who were left were left with nothing. I tried my hardest to find work--I even had Newsday write about my plight in two separate stories--but I could not find anything. Nobody would hire me due to the pandemic and my decrepit age of 62 when the company went under. I was forced to take early retirement, and at age 63, I officially retired. I had no choice, as my unemployment was about to run out. I did find remote work as a writer/editor with the xxx, which remembered me from E and C News. But now at age 65, no one will hire me to a full-time position, so I am making a fraction of what I should be making. I try to come to terms with all of this, but it is difficult. I continue to write my blog, I am all over Facebook, and I guess I have to understand that hiring managers half my age are not going to hire an old fogey like me.”

(Note: Yes, I blotted out the name of the company I currently work for in the message, although on LinkedIn, I left it intact; there is no need to include them in the discussion we are having here.)

It is still difficult for me to fathom what happened to me,, even though we are talking about more than three years ago … what happened happened.

I guess in a way, I simply have not come to terms with this situation yet, no matter how hard I try to.

On the other hand, I believe that I have come to terms with what happened, and I just try to put it out of my mind.

It is a real balancing act, I know that, but if I don’t think about it too much, it keeps me going.

I still think that I am part of the game, but like I said, I have applied for full-time work in the recent past, and I have gotten no response, just like I did before and during the pandemic, when I tried every way possible to get hired.

But I was forced to give in then, and I was forced to give in more recently.

As I said, life goes on.

I don’t like the situation, but there really is nothing I can do about it.

At this point, I have other worries, other things that I must be concerned about, things I did not have on my plate three years ago.

My mom is my main concern now, and frankly, there isn’t much I can do about that situation either.

But at least I can take her to her doctors’ appointments without worrying about how I am going to fit that into my full-time workday.

I took her for a major one at a local hospital on Monday, and today, she goes for a less important one this afternoon.

How could I do this if I was working full-time?

I would have to take days off from work, but since she needs prime care now, it would be very difficult for me to be taking off so many times.

And yes, I have finally gotten used to my routine, which includes taking my son back and forth to work—there is no other way for him to get back and forth going from one county to another and back again--and being home a good part of the day.

I have plenty of things to do here—I have a conference to cover tomorrow for work—but once you are able to work at home, it is very difficult to get back to an office environment … although I will tell you from personal experience that there is nothing like working in an office, being surrounded by your fellow workers, and getting to your work in this setting.

I believe it is still more productive than doing this at home, where you can literally be sitting in your underwear and doing your work.

But with all of this being said, it is always nice to hear from someone out of the blue like this, and I will always reply to someone who asks me about what is going on with me … and I will do it honestly and concisely, but I will not pull any punches in what I say to them.

And then along the same lines, I woke up today and checked my email as I always do, and I was contacted by another former fellow employee of mine, but one who went down for the count like I did when the business we worked for closed three years back.

I haven’t read her email yet, but it appears that she needs a reference for a new job that she is pursuing, and she has asked me to give her one.

She was also out of work for a long time, but with her, it was made all the more worse because she is about 20 years younger than I am, so she did not have retirement or Social Security to fall back on.

Some time ago, I gave her a reference for a job that she was pursuing, and I guess now she needs another reference for another job she is going for, and I will once again provide what she needs.

Like I said, life goes on.

It goes on in something of a straight line for others, but for me, the line has been pretty wavy.

But it does go on, and I have to just get into my head that this is the way it is, this is the way it will be, and I just have to roll with the flow.

But it is something that honestly, is still very hard for me to do.