| Re: "Boom gone bad?" by Amy Steele, Cover, November 02-08, 2006.
I identified in more than just a few ways with your recent article about living in the Boomtown.
I moved to Calgary from Toronto as the result of a promotion. The job I came to was in a senior manager role with a well-known publisher and I relished in it. Sadly, for me, it went away. I lost my position in the fallout of a takeover just shy of two years after my promotion.
I was looked after well with retention and severance bonuses. I loved my job and the people I worked with. I am now filled with resentment, and I am lost. I spent 12 years in that business and I know it well. I considered it my craft, and would have done anything to help see it succeed. I can honestly say, that very few employers get the kind of loyalty and passion I demonstrated on a daily basis.
I have to re-tool and learn a new craft. That is not easy. My wife feels our move is nothing short of a disaster and wants to move back to Toronto. This is a problem. I love Calgary. I don't want to leave.
During this period of transition I have also been caught up in the lure of new wealth in this city. It is palpable, you think it is yours for the taking, that it is right around the corner. It is not so. Chasing rainbows is exhausting and demoralizing. Along for the ride is this sense of entitlement that manifests itself in ugly ways; frustration, jealousy and irrationality. Entitlement, all on its own, is an ugly thing to begin with.
Your article caused me to look at what I love about Calgary, what I have forgotten and what I need to do to find myself and be me again.
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