Shoes On The Other Foot

[sibgakhan]

Shoes On The Other Foot ~ Inspired By Gail~ Hey Larry

This is a real man... I work with him and this is about the way he related it to me... I am just going to tell you the story... His name is Jim, he is a Machinist at the tune of about $25 an hours... sounds good huh?

Well, yeah it is, it is nice that we do have fairly well paying jobs here in Alabama, butttttttttt...... Jim is 48 years old, I went to school with him, and I was definitely surprised when he hired on at the company I work for... I have been with the company for over 20 years, and he knew me already from years past, so he was talking to me about how to get a 'permanent' job there...

I made a simple comment about him being All Star Football, Baseball, Basketball in school, as well as on the honor roll, and I figured he would do better with his life than a Machinist... and this is basically HIS story... He asked if I remembered "Paul" from school, and I said yep... Paul was a nerd... he was really smart, but not handsome, and not popular at all...

Jim always picked on Paul... harassed him, and tried, on a daily basis to make Paul look like a fool in front of the entire school. He really made it is GOAL in school to make Paul miserable, and he succeeded. Paul would miss days, he would avoid eye contact with anyone... he had that "beaten" look about him... A lot of us noticed, and even felt sorry for him, but I guess since our STAR was the one doing it, no one had the guts to take up for poor poor Paul...

Paul got a scholarship to a California College, because he wanted to get a LONG way away from all of us, especially Jim... We lost contact, with him, he never came to any class reunions, nor did he answer any of the mail we sent out inviting him... Jim got a scholarship, in Football of course, to the University Of Alabama, he majored in Engineering and graduated with honors, surprisingly enough, he did horrible in Football there... Jim got a job in a major industry around Nashville, and he was an upcoming Engineer, bright future, had a few promotions... He had the world by the tail!!! Nothing bothered him... not even when his wife took his kids and moved away from him... "cant be bothered by the little things"... not when his parents died in a car crash... he barely took time off from work because he KNEW that the CEO of his Industry was going to retire in a very few years and he had to be there to SHINE....

By this time he was earning in the neighborhood of $100,000 a year, plus expenses. In 1998, the Company was bought out by a Conglomerate (sp?) out of California.... and the CEO did announce his retirement.... Jim polished his 'finesse' and worked all the harder so the new owner would notice HIM, and he would get that FINAL promotion that would make his LIFE!! He did everything, dotted every single I and crossed every single T.... And it paid off for him... He was granted an interview with the new owner!!! He was on top of the world, he KNEW that the job was HIS!!!

On the day of the interview... he dressed in a very expensive suit... he got all his awards, his work and had everything in perfect order so that the owner would not have a problem SEEING how GOOD Jim was. When he walked into the office for the interview, he knew the owner looked familiar... he thought to himself "I know this man" but dismissed this because he was too into HIMSELF and getting this promotion... Then the OWNER of his company introduced himself... it was Paul (you knew this though didn't you Larry? lol)

Of course, Paul knew from the start that it was Jim... and he abruptly interrupted Jim to REMIND him of the "good ole days"... Jim was shocked, and he had a fear in him that was very unfamiliar to him... he KNEW that all those years of making this man's life miserable had come back to haunt him...

Well, the rest of the story is, Paul was a multi-millionaire and owned several businesses... And now it was time for his pay-back... he told Jim flat out that he wished that he could be "big" enough to put the past behind them and go forward, but just looking at him brought back all those years of PAIN that almost cost Paul his life... he tried suicide a couple times, but no one knew....He told Jim that he wasn't going to fire him, but he would rather that he didn't work there anymore....

Jim turned in his resignation that afternoon, and went home an unemployed, broken man... He never recovered... he tried to put in résumé's to other competitors, but he just didn't have that Pizzazz that he needed anymore... he lost it

Of course, Jim went on to learn a trade... manual (first time in his life) and started trying to be a DADDY to his boys, and that is what brought him back here, to Alabama...

Yep, $25 an hour is good money for this area... but it is also a daily reminder to Jim what a horrible BULLY he was in school... The good part about this story is that it did make JIM realize what he did wrong, and he is trying to change all that... he even told me he had a letter composed to Paul with a full apology and a thank-you for making him finally SEE what the real world was... for the first time in his life...


Regards

sibga khan