I saw something today that just… it stuck with me. Like a burr under the saddle, you know? Like a splinter in your thumb that you can’t quite dig out. I was at the office, doing my usual, just trying to get through the day, trying to keep things running, like I always do, every single day, every single day. And there was this young woman, all dressed up, fancy, and she’s in the kitchen, practically dancing, talking about some huge bonus. Like, a *performance* bonus. Good for her, I guess. That’s what they always say, right? Good for her, she worked hard, she deserves it. But then, at the next table, there were these three other people. And they were quiet. Not like, peacefully quiet, but like… deflated quiet. And I heard one of them whisper about “layoff notices.” Layoff notices. In the middle of this woman celebrating her bonus, these poor souls are staring at their pink slips. And nobody says anything. The bonus woman just keeps on, oblivious, or maybe just uncaring. And it just… it makes me so damn MAD. I’ve seen it a thousand times. The ones at the top, they just keep on getting, and the ones at the bottom, they just keep on losing. And I just sit there, every single day, trying to keep everyone else afloat, trying to make sure everyone has what they need, and nobody ever sees *my* layoff notice. My layoff notice from life, from being the one who always has to pick up the pieces. It’s just… a gut punch. After all these years, after sacrificing everything, literally everything, to be there for everyone else, to keep the house running, to keep the family together, to be the constant, the steady hand, the one who never falters. I watched my own career fade into the background, my own dreams just… vanish, because someone always needed me more. Someone always needed me to be the stable one, the quiet one, the one who just got on with it. And I did. I did it, every single day. And I see that marketing manager, so proud of her bonus, so oblivious to the people whose lives are being upended just a few feet away, and I just think, what was it all for? What was any of it for? Just to watch the world keep on being so goddamn unfair. And I’m still here, still cleaning up messes, still making sure everyone else is fed. Still here.