February 21, 2017
T-minus 11 days. One year ago, when we officially announced our intentions not to renew our contract at Scuba Junkie, our mental and physical exhaustion had reached a point that was taking a brutal toll on us. We honestly had reached a point where we were unable to approach each day in a positive way without thinking of simply soldiering forward to the end of our contract, moving on and finding the perfect sailboat which we knew had to be out there but had no idea which boat it could be or how we would find it. With six months to go, we didn’t think we would make it without killing someone, or each other. Our frustrations with work, things that would never change, no matter how hard we had tried, had peaked to a point of no return and the tunnel continued to grow darker and darker, closing in further with every passing day. Even our days off seemed to offer no rejuvenation, only momentary sanctuary. The resort’s growth had simply become too much for two people to oversee. During our first five years, we had seemed to turn back time, feeling younger and younger every year; but as managers, that time had been stolen back exponentially. We simply felt old and tired again.
And then slowly, as the transition began with what we had jokingly come to refer to as “The New Same-Same World Order” (a restructuring involving six people taking on all the duties and responsibilities we had previously juggled, that largely remained to be hashed out in its gritty details), we found ourselves slowly able to step back more and more. The daily onslaught of issues, problems and headaches were now gradually becoming other peoples challenges to sort out. For the first time in years, we found ourselves able to breathe again… We found ourselves actually diving again! Our conversations began to center around sailing and the future, rather than around trying to resolve the latest crisis. The fog seemed to slowly be clearing.
And now, suddenly, we find ourselves facing our last day of work at Scuba Junkie. Our final week here will be burning our last bit of holiday time due to us, visiting with friends and former colleagues coming back to celebrate Tino’s (one of the owners) wedding – an event certain to be epic in both scale and consumption…an event we feel ecstatic to be participants in rather than responsible for. Possibly one of the smartest things we ever arranged.
To get to this moment we have had to come full circle, much like riding a roller coaster loop. Moving backwards while slowing to a point of feeling like the wheels are about to catastrophically come off the track with everything coming crashing down in a wreck, only to pick up speed as we complete the loop and jettison towards the next thrill. Time seems to be accelerating more and more. The plan is already in place. The endgame is happening quickly…it always does.
sv-exit.com 