Reached My Destination
“Ego has a voracious appetite, the more you feed it, the hungrier it gets.” - Nathaniel Bronner Jr.
Reached My Destination
It has been two years, we have not met. Last time was when we were departing at Rome Airport as a procedure of joining different competitive firms. We exchanged our personal email ids and I never realised my email id was a with a typo error.
We have been in six years of professional relationship that ended with a small misunderstanding. We never realised that we might not get a chance to clear it. We both had tough ego levels to shed off.
In these two years’ work has always kept me busy. There have been instances where I wanted to write to him for his expertise advice but my ego always stopped me. And then one day flying to London for a conference was taking away my peace of mind. I knew he would be there as a part of the event from his firm.
I thought to ignore him and behave professionally as an employee. Finally, I entered the conference hall. I was quick enough to realise that he would take over participants attention with his confidence, and all I would do sitting there would be appreciating him, nodding my head as ‘Yes to Yes’ and ‘No to No’.
Finally, he approached the podium.
The very first line that fell into my ears was my name as he proceeded, “I am proud to be here with 8 years of experience and I would like to share my best practices with all of you. This is a journey I completed with one of my best colleague and my best friend ‘my name’ who supported me through day and night with the toughest projects and killing deadlines”.
For a moment I fell numbed and completely lost. All I could recollect were my thoughts for him before entering the room and his greatness to acknowledge my presence. Finally, the conference ended and we all left for refreshment. I was struggling hard to face him.
I saw him coming towards me with a gift.
I asked him, “Why this gift?”
He was very humble to answer, ‘This is a small token of friendship to tell how much I missed my friend when I wanted her the most. A small token to represent that even when you were not with me your teachings helped me to work on difficult projects and be where I am today.”
I asked inquisitively, “But you never wrote to me, if I was so important and helpful.”
He replied, “You left me with an email id that is not reachable, may be you missed a letter. I had no number to call you either but when I read your name in the list, I did all these arrangements. We never know when we meet again in life, so this gift is for you my friend.”
Finally, we again departed to our respective destinations but this time with a smile.
On my way home, I realised that he had my incorrect email id and still he tried to contact me. I had his correct contact information but I never wrote to him. I wanted him to initiate the conversation. He may thank me today for all but I know, I was not that great. It was too late for me to realise as I have reached my destination but in guilt.
One thing I have learned that we should not take too long to shed our ego. We should not make delays to ask for an apology as it loses its significance. As we say an apology at the right time can save relationships. “I”, “me” and “self” will never let relationships progress in one’s life.
