The Holiday Party After

The company has a holiday party. You are not invited. You are not uninvited — you simply don’t exist in the system that generates invitations.

Someone sends you a photo. The team. Your team. The one you built. They’re smiling in front of a backdrop you’ve never seen because you were gone before the party planner booked it.

They look fine. That’s the worst part. Not that they’ve moved on — of course they’ve moved on. But that the party continues. The team continues. The work continues. The building continues. Everything you thought required you is continuing without you.

The holiday party is proof that you were replaceable. Not wrong — everyone is. But seeing the photo makes it specific. That table. Those people. That space where you used to stand.