Black Friday

Last Friday, January 19, 2007, was one of the hardest days of my life. The company for what I've been working the past 3 years, announced that they have to lay-off almost half of their employees. For a small company like ours....THAT'S A LOT!

Before anything else, let me give a little brief on the company. It is a software applications, start-up company that was founded in 2002. We had, until Friday, 25 employees. The hidden goal of the company was trying to establish a Local Software company, hoping that other follow and our engineering students don't have to "elope" to the States. Well, apparently it is harder that we thought or the financial personnel (umm, Do we have any?) are not good enough. The company is having struggles with money since June 2006, where some of us had to take forced vacations. We thought that we were recovering from that, but apparently we were going deeper. The Board decided to lay off 9 of its employees...

That day, you could feel a heavy feeling, almost impossible to breath...everybody was on stress and wondering who was going to be lay-off...The leads decided that they will tell us by individual meetings...But the tension was so big that nobody was working. We decided to go outside and talk and relax ...One by one were entering and going. If the person was carrying their things, he was a goner...otherwise he will stay...but for how long?...I don't know if I was lucky or not but I was one of the keepers. I'm staying... for now.

Since that day, something snapped inside me. A feeling of getting out. I started a thinking process about my dreams, how i picture myself in the near future. An internal search began...A new journey. I remembered that I wanted to study, to get my masters. I was playing with the idea of moving to Atlanta...Maybe this "Black Friday" was the answer to my prayers. Maybe if that didn't happened, I would never feel the strength to follow my dreams. Don't get my wrong, I loved my job...but I think is time for a change...a time to try new things...everything is making sense now!

For the first time in my life, I'm not afraid of the possibility of change. I've been waiting for it...So, I'M READY...Bring it ON!