The Departure

I checked my work email.  There was only one email of importance.  It was from the university's payroll department.

The email began thus:

In order to prepare for your departure from WOU, I am reaching out to see how you would like to receive your final check: via direct deposit on 03/31/2022 or via a paper check on your final day.

It is now a one week countdown to when I apparently will depart from WOU.  A nice euphemism that makes it seem like I am off to a pleasant journey.  I suppose a truthful statement "As a result of your layoff ..." is not acceptable in the contemporary organizational behavior handbooks.

(March 31st is my mother's birthday!)

I am reminded of the one-paragraph Franz Kafka story that I have often shared with students for them to think about their own lives. Here it is for your reading:

The Departure

by Franz Kafka

I ordered my horse to be brought from the stables. The servant did not understand my orders. So I went to the stables myself, saddled my horse, and mounted. In the distance I heard the sound of a trumpet, and I asked the servant what it meant. He knew nothing and had heard nothing. At the gate he stopped me and asked: "Where is the master going?" "I don't know," I said, "just out of here, just out of here. Out of here, nothing else, it's the only way I can reach my goal." "So you know your goal?" he asked. "Yes," I replied, "I've just told you. Out of here--that's my goal."