Kevin I came across this email I got from a website owned by one of my connections on LinkedIn, ElleTwo. One of the things it said in the call to action was to send along something about a time where the universe looked after you by delivering the just desserts to ppl who screwed you over, or whatever.
Basically, it’s universe retribution, what goes around comes around, you reap what you sow, that kinda thing.
At first, I wasn’t sure where to even start, and I was drawing a blank on it. After all, those who screw you over generally get rewarded for their efforts, at least in my experience.
Everything good in life happens to them, and they’re celebrated everywhere they go. Everyone loves em, and everyone swoops in to save em when their victims get hurt and they play victim instead.
Sometimes we even see news stories about how some famous John Q. Citizen or Jane Doe got up to some stupid shyt behind the scenes. Like these stories in Cosmo that I remember reading in high school, where there’d be stuff about how Celebrity ABC and Celebrity XYZ acted like total jerks to some rando.
I tried to guess who those stories were about, but couldn’t. Hey, I was in high school, and the internet hadn’t come to my house yet at that time.
Whoever these jerky celebrities were, I’m sure it sucked for the ppl they mistreated to see the paparazzi and whatever fanbase they had celebrating them like it was going outta style any second.
I know for a fact it did when a certain someone who used to own a movie production company some years back. I won’t sully this blog w/ his actual name, and I’ll use what I referred to him as in a post draft that’ll be coming up soon: Heinous Wanker. Up until the news came out of his consent-violating and abusive ways, I know the press stories and the media coverage was traumatizing to see and hear for those he victimized.
Heinous Wanker’s luck ran out, and after a difficult trial in New York and Los Angeles, he got his just desserts of a nice, long vacation where he belonged a long time ago.
But back to a more personal level, for my own stories of how the universe sorted out those who weren’t there for me and caused me harm.
One story stands out. There’s the nameless company whose ownership lied to me and jerked me around for weeks on end, after treating me like shyt in the interview when I was in college and going through my first job search. Let’s say this company was a bookstore, for the sake of the story.
We no longer had a phone at that point, so we had to use the neighbor’s. I smashed out that stupid application, one of hundreds that summer, and the person who took my application took down some instructions I mentioned for talking w/ the neighbor, and it was in reference to the one who was usually home all day.
When it came time for the interview, I was there 15 minutes early. One took me to the back office. It was 2 of them, interrogating me and belittling me. Then, as soon as they picked up my application, they demanded an explanation for the instructions and the neighbor’s number. They looked angry and offended that they even had to stoop to my trash level. I was like, I can’t afford a phone. In response, they mocked me and ridiculed me.
I don’t remember exactly how the interview ended, probably w/ them spewing their age-old, hackneyed battery of excuses of “we’ll call you,” “we’ll be in touch.”
A week went by, nothing but ice-cold radio silence from them. I’d moved on to applying at other companies, all of whom made it clear they’d sooner die than ever give me the time of day. The following week, I rode over to follow up on the application. Their excuse? “Still taking apps.”
I saw something I’d been wanting to get for a long time, and w/ the little money I had, I decided to get it. They were sure as shyt more than happy to take that little money I had left, and they had the gall to offer to put it in my bag for me.
I wish I could say that was the last time we ever went there, but it wasn’t. When things got better, and I moved forward in college, we went back there. It was like they didn’t even remember what they did to me just a few years earlier. We continued to patronize their business, until we started going elsewhere, and my mom started leaving the house less often.
Years later, they went outta business.
I wasn’t even remotely sorry to see em go. I was stoked to see their “Going Out of Business” sale and signage. Good fuckin riddance to bad rubbish. It didn’t happen in the time frame I’d have wanted, but since it eventually happened, I’ll call it a victory all the same.
If I had it to do all over again, I’d have walked out on that interview after they trash-talked my neighbor like ableist asswipes. If not that, then I’d have walked outta that place the minute they fired off that battery of excuses, and walked out empty-handed. I wouldn’t have given those bastards another dime of my money, no matter how bad I wanted something from there.
That’s exactly what I did w/ a business I had a horrible experience at, and I wasn’t even a customer there yet. Maybe there’ll be more on that, maybe there won’t be, but either way, I’ll never be a customer there.
Maybe it would have sped up the process, or maybe it wouldn’t have mattered anyways. They built themselves a nice little fanbase while they were in their business glory days, all the while treating job seekers like garbage. In all likelihood, they treated their employees like garbage too. Whether their fanbase was aware of their true colors or not, they were happy to support them all the same.
The last I saw of the owners was years ago, before the pandemic. They didn’t recognize me, which was cool w/ me. I’d lost most of the weight by then, but I recognized them for sure. They changed, all right. Just not for the better, since their business ended operations. They were still every bit the arrogant, two-faced chodes I remembered them to be.
Sure, there’s been other instances where I saw wrongdoers reap what they sow, but on a more individual level. There was a recruiter who rejected me outta spite even though I met most of the requirements and they were laid off less than a month later.
They were jobless for a month, then took temporary roles, and last I heard, they were in a leadership role. If this came so easy to them, I wonder how many other job seekers they destroyed, and how many more they’ll do this crap to.
I fear for any candidate who has to deal w/ them.
The amount of time they spent jobless was peanuts compared to how long I ended up suffering, but I’m sure it sucked to be in this place all the same.
One thing I learned years ago when I was going through a difficult time in my life, was that even though I won’t always get front-row seats to the shitshow of seeing a wrongdoer or an evildoer get their just desserts, they’ll get what’s coming to them sooner or later. I used to think I had to see it in order to move on. Now, I’m at peace w/ not having to see it happen in order to move on. Just believing it’ll happen, and knowing it’s only a matter of time is enough for me. It has to be.
Otherwise, that door’s just gonna be banging open, and that’s no way to live. Over to you, readers. Has there been a time where the universe sorted out those who caused you harm? Or have you seen it play out on someone else’s behalf? I’d love to hear your thoughts and takeaways, so drop it all like it’s hot, and let’s talk.
