You ever bump into someone you knew when you were younger, and your lives have gone in totally different directions from the last time you saw them? Back then, maybe they were in a position of power, and had the world in front of them and seemed primed for great things; and maybe you were a kid just starting out, just trying to figure out what you wanted? Back in the day, you figured the cycle of life would lead both people involved to bigger and better things, if you're lucky enough. I always imagined it. That being said, when you bump into someone and they have just completely fallen off the radar of productive and fulfilling life, that's when you're left a little speechless, and if you're a dick, it gives you funny material for a blog.
Guess which side I landed on?
Ok, so back in high school, I needed a job, because I needed money to pay for buying food and seeing movies with my friends. That's a cycle that has yet to stop. However, when you're 15, your options are limited, because your skills are limited, as is your transportation. So when I walked past a local pizzeria that enticed future employees with a sign that said: "Great Pay and all the pizza you can eat.", my eyes lit up. At that point in my life, it was my golden ticket. Back then(and hell, even now) that would have been my answer to: "What do you want to get out of life?", and now it's being offered to me? Insane. So, I applied and got a job at this pizza place, and thus began a decade of awful eating habits. Bastards. That's a different story. This story is about my boss, who shall remain nameless. He was a younger guy, maybe early 30's, and he was the manager. He was the man in charge(when the owner wasn't there) and he seemed to love his job. However, after a while, you could tell that his heart wasn't in it, and he figured he was destined for greater things, so he quit and started a career in real estate, as that had been a dream of his as well. He went on to try and make something of himself. Good for him.
Years went by, I left that job, went to college, worked at a supermarket, kept going to college, finished college, worked a crappier job, quit that job, and now I'm a temp, living another kind of dream, known as a nightmare. However, I'm certainly better off then I was 10 years ago. I make pretty decent money, I still have my creative outlets, and I'm putting money away. It's really all I can ask for, and every so often my mind drifts to my first job and my manager, and I wondered if he had ever made it.
Cut to a month ago.
My friends and I are in a different pizza place. It's right near my first job, and it's packed with young guys behind the counter. The action of the place and the sounds and smells take me back, but then, something else did. From out of a door walked, my old boss. Wearing what I must assume are his "working at a pizza place" clothes, and holding the bag you keep pizzas in when you've made a delivery. I figure my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I dumped my soda into my sockets. MISTAKE! After the burning subsided, I looked again, and I wasn't wrong. It was him. My old manager, the one who left for greener pastures, had made his return at a different pizza place, at a lesser position. I was stunned. I was speechless. I couldn't stop laughing, mostly because I'm a prick. And when he went to take a delivery, slipped and dropped a pizza face down on the ground(and then followed that with a look ripped out of the "Fuck My Life" website), I had to leave the place, because I figured he would hear me crying tears of laughter(and a little sadness) and he would recognize me. Made this 'ol temp feel pretty good about himself, but hoping my old boss found his way once more.
Anyway, uhh, the moral of this story? Don't get into real estate.
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