The Promotion

I worked for a decade to become partner at the law firm. Ten years of 80-hour weeks, missed birthdays, canceled vacations. When they finally called me into the corner office, I expected congratulations.\n\n"You're being let go," they said. "Budget cuts."\n\nTen years. Ended in five minutes.\n\nI walked out with a cardboard box of personal items. In the elevator, I started laughing. Hysterical, couldn't-stop laughing.\n\nBecause I was free. I had been a prisoner to that job, and I didn't even know it.\n\nI started my own practice the next month. Smaller, but mine. I set my own hours. I saw my kids grow up.\n\nSometimes the universe does you a favor by taking away what you thought you wanted.