You’ve Been Terminated

Wow. I’ve never heard those words before in my 20+ year marketing career. But guess what? I heard them on Monday. And it wasn’t in a cool Arnold Schwarzenegger voice either. Because, in my head, his voice would have made it a little less real. “Our strategy going forward is such that we no longer have a need for the services of a marketing department,” said the non-Arnold voice to my co-worker and me. Double wow.

I’m a firm believer in fate and faith. One guiding the other on a path unknown to me, but influenced by me nonetheless. And I believe that attitude is everything. So did I get totally ticked off and rip apart my office like Ms. Disgruntled Employee would do? Um, no. Did I cry and say, “How could you do this to me? How am I going to support my family?” Ok, so I did well up a bit, but again I was not angry.

Why? Because along with fate and faith I forge my own destiny. I am not defined by a turndown, rejection, or even a company that has decided I’m no longer part of their strategy. I’m defined by…me. And I like to define myself by writing words that will make people feel better, by the way I nuzzle my children in bed and tell them they are my world, and by saying hi to a stranger in the hopes to erase anything negative that was said to him before our eyes met. To be kind even when all I want to do is scream. To understand that maybe I wasn’t a good fit. To realize that this round peg needs to stop forcing herself into square holes.

So as I turn the corner on the unknown, I’m realizing that I haven’t been terminated, I’ve been liberated. More importantly, as I turn the corner, I’ll look to fate who winks while knowing just what’s going to happen next, while faith takes my hand and tells me, “Don’t worry, my child, it’s going to be ok. Your destiny awaits. All you need to do is turn the page and I’ll give you the ink to write your very own story.”