Don’t Cry Because It Is Over. Smile Because It Happened….What If I Want To Cry Because It Happened and Because It Is Over

Ah, therapy.  The only thing in my life that guarantees that I am crazy.  I get to go hear myself say how ridiculous I was and never even noticed.  I am going again today and I think it is the first time I am going with more good days than bad in between sessions.  Just writing that raises a panic inside of me.  I must be building up for a gigantic fall and my craziness is just teasing me.  I am not sure what to feel about it.  Luckily we won’t be dealing with my forgiveness/shame issues as that is saved for next week.  No, this week will probably be about my work stress.

So my work is not something I mention much on here other than I do a couple of different jobs.  If you want to be technical, I actually do 3, but 2 of them are closely related.  Well, about the time my relationship went into a free fall, my job situation was changing rapidly.  The company that I work for was in disarray and they knew that I had experience “fixing” companies with similar issues.  So they hired me in a different capacity, as a consultant of sorts.  It was to be a long-term deal and so I rearranged my life to make it work.  I changed so this was my main source of income as it was more than I was currently making.

I set some clear guidelines that must be met in order for me to do my job and be successful.  If the owner of the company did not want to meet these then I honestly could do nothing to save the company.  I even went so far as to lay out what needed to be done by whom and what needed to be outsourced and so forth.  The bad news was that the owner needed to reinvest into his company which took money away from him in the short-term, but it was not like he was struggling with what he was still making.  Long story short, I got his agreement that he would make the necessary changes and so I agreed to take the job.  I would know in 3 months whether or not the company would make it because if the owner had not made the changes by then it would be too late.

As you can guess, he did not do any of the proposed changes.  So I have spent the last 8 months making sure I am protecting myself from any potential law suites and making it clear that I was trying everything I could so I may still be marketable when this is all done.  Unfortunately, this will affect about 500 people and their families and so I have had a hard time living with that because a lot of them knew I was the last hope for this company.  I feel for these people and many of them I know well.  So for the last 3 months I have been convincing the owner to merge with another company and cash out.  It has taken time but I finally got it finished this week.  We will be taken over by a new company with a more stable management.  While this is a very big stress relief in some ways it is also bitter-sweet.  I saved these families but in the process I have written myself out of a job.  I knew if the merger were to take place that there was a 95% chance that I would not be brought over into a similar or equal role.  I would have to take a drastic pay-cut to stay on or get out completely.

I have had all this added to my relationship issues and it does make the days and nights very long some times.  Most of the people and their families won’t know about me leaving until I am gone and the new company is taking over.  I have been trying and trying to find a new job within the area but because I have a unique skill set, my jobs are difficult to find and usually I have to be willing to relocate.  I still may have to do that but we are trying to stay until my older two finish high school.

So to recap my last year, my marriage falls apart and wife falls into a deeply depressed state.  I fall off the end of the earth in self-loathing and decide to latch onto superficial things that make me temporarily feel better.  My job falls apart without me being able to do anything about it.  I am quickly looking at going from 3 jobs down to none as all my contacts run out at the same time.  I decide my wife doesn’t love me or want me anymore and I create an alternate me that starts another relationship.  This blows up what was left of my relationship with my wife and in the end I still could end up with what, nothing.

What is the good news out of this all?  Well, my relationship is getting better with my wife.  We have had to focus on relationship and reinvest in ourselves to strengthen who we are and what we bring to each other.  I truly understood what it was like for my wife having to cope with depression as I have been suffering from it for a while now.  At least hers is now mostly under control, just in time for me to go nuts.  I have saved a large group of people from a lot of turmoil even though most of them didn’t know it was coming and will never know I saved them from what was coming.  I wish I could say that it was all worth it, that all the trouble I have had this last year was worth it in the end, but to be honest I really don’t think it was.

I am still going to be jobless (most likely).  I am still a cheating husband with no guarantee that my wife won’t decide one day it is too much for her to deal with and want out.  I have already told her she just has to ask and I will grant it to her.  I hurt another person with my selfish actions.  My children have suffered, not because they know of these issues but they are not stupid and know that my wife and I are having problems.  I have alienated the only people who have accepted me as family, her family.  I know I cannot go back and pretend like none of this ever happened.  They entrusted their daughter to me when I was 18 and I promised to love, honor and cherish her, and I failed.  I know they had reservations about their daughter getting married so young, especially with someone with my familial background.  I know I would if my daughter wanted to get married at that age to someone like me.  They don’t even know that the affair occurred, but me knowing is enough.  So I am alone again, lost in a world that seems to be out to get me.  So do I really want to cry because my situations are coming to an end and smile because they happened.  No way.  I want to cry for both reasons, and then beat the hell out of something.  I want a reset button and a chance to do it all over again.  I want to be a better person than I have become.

This is one whiny post, I know.  Today has been filled with things that remind me of everything I have been through and therapy is just going to bring more of them up.  Ughh…  I really just can’t wait.  Maybe I will update later tonight with how it went or hopefully I will be too intoxicated to be able to work my computer and it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened – Dr. Seuss