The Difference

It is a big day for me tomorrow. I have to be at two places at one time and it will mean having to juggle my commitments around.

It's probably been the first time in years that I have a schedule where I am meant to be at two parties at once - but I am going to make sure I don't let anyone down.

I will reveal the second and most important reason for celebration tomorrow but for now I will tell you about the first.

I was told by a colleague a few months ago that our area manager has decided to leave the company. It was a surprise to me as she has been working there for ages. She was promoted to her current position a few months after I started my job so she has known me for nearly nine years.

When I saw her a few weeks ago I asked if the rumours were true and she replied in the positive and then told me she wanted me to be there at her leaving party.

There is this respect that everyone has for her in all the stores she is in control of. Some would say it is fear as I have seen a lot of people totally lose control of themselves when they know she's on her way. Just the other week when she was in the restaurant I noticed one of the kitchen staff's hands shaking like a leaf (a poker tell that I have started noticing since reading those strategy books!).

I have always had this polite interaction with her over the years but there was something that she did in 2004 that I will never forget and is why I really want to be there tomorrow night and wish her well.

It was April 27th and was a little over a year since I was ill. I had returened to work in December but was still battling the personal problems and trying to get back on my feet. It was also a year to the day that person who I mentioned in an earlier post had entered my life and at that point things between us were losing momentum and I knew she was losing her feelings for me.

So I had two things to deal with at that time - one was to regain my former self and the other was to ensure I didn't lose the person who I cherished a great deal.

Then came a bombshell - I had to go to an area staff meeting that night. I thought I would have been able to get away with it but it was a prerequisite for my job. Looking back, I am pretty sure they would have allowed me to be absent but I felt that I had to try and do it. So, despite not having been out on my own in the late evenings for at least a year.

I bumped into a whole host of people from other stores who I had known for years before. Many were different around me. In hindsight they must have been unsure how to react to me - I had changed a lot I was all bloated with longer hair and was nervous around them.

During the meeting we had to offer up opinions and I went ahead and spoke up when questions were brought my way. I was doing this with one eye on my mobile hoping that an e-card I had sent would be delivered in my absence online.

At the end of this meeting, the area manger did an award ceremony where she awarded some of the best workers in the area. She called out my name and said I had performed well during a visit in the store a few days earlier and then handed me a slip to stick on the staff room wall in my restaurant.

The sticker was a small certificate and she had written 'THANK YOU 4 BEING HERE. YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE!'

I didn't bother taking it back to my store and putting it on that wall. I thought it would be best placed with me in my room so I could keep it whenever I felt like I needed a pick me up.

I know it was only a piece of paper but it really did mean a lot to me.

And that's why I have to go tomorrow night.