Marion had broken her arm two days ago. It was one of those weeks that had been sent to test her.
On Tuesday morning on her way to work a man had yelled at Marion, accusing her of shoving him as she tried to manoeuvre herself out the doors of a busy and over-crowded tram. He was rude, obnoxious and unreasonable given the circumstances, and on any other day Marion would have simply moved on and not let him or his words bother her. However the encounter with this man had rattled her and she didn’t understand why.
On Wednesday evening on her way home from work a cyclist rode through a red light and knocked Marion over as she walked across a pedestrian crossing. A trip to Accident and Emergency and a consult with a bored and condescending Dr only added insult to her injury. According to the Dr, when the cyclist had slammed into Marion and knocked her to the ground, she had fallen in the wrong way. Essentially the prognosis was that Marion had broken her arm herself.
It was now Friday morning and Marion was back at work, sitting at her desk, reading her emails. As she scanned through her inbox she was instantly drawn to one titled “Epic Moments Ahead”. Marion opened the email and saw images of attractive people of different ages, young, middle-aged, retirees all smiling and enjoying themselves on vacation in exotic places. Some were skiing, sky diving and scuba diving, others were dancing, lounging by the pool and drinking cocktails at sunset. “Well I won’t be skiing for a while” Marion thought to herself as she looked down at her broken arm, laughing at both her situation and the fact she had only skied once on a school trip when she was fifteen.
As the morning wore on Marion couldn’t stop thinking of that email. Sure it was sent via a distribution list to thousands of people who were signed-up up to the same air miles program that she was, however after the week she had experienced it was as if those words “Epic Moments Ahead” were meant specifically for her. It made her think of a quote she had recently read that posed the question “why can’t your real life be as wonderful as your vacations?”.
The email was a sign and the push that Marion needed. It was her light bulb moment. It’s aim was to sell Marion the ideal getaway experience, however it wasn’t a vacation that she needed. No what Marion needed was a new life.
On her lunch break Marion composed a brief and thoughtful resignation letter to her boss. To Marion it was the perfect way to end the most testing week.
There's a lot going on up here 