The Intern

         When I retire, what will I want to do? Go shopping, go traveling, or study abroad...etc. If I didn’t need to think about money, I might study abroad again. I just hope by that time I want to keep moving, my brain can be still used. Frankly speaking, retiring, I really hope that my partner can force me to go out for fun. We can visit a lot of beautiful places and see a lot of landscapes, wherever they are. Before graduating from university, studying in the library was a place where I stayed the longest. After graduating from university, my classroom becomes a place where I teach students and where I spend most of my time. I lost a lot of interest that I had before. I just hope I could enjoy my life again like Ben who had a lot of energy to enjoy life of retirement. But if you ask me that I still want to go back to workplace, I must say, “NO.”

       No one like Ben who wanted to return back to work again at his age of 70. At first, Ben enjoyed the novelty of retirement. He used all the miles he saved and traveled the globe. Nevertheless, the problem was, no matter where he went, as soon as he got home, the nowhere-to-be thing hit him like a ton of bricks. He realized the key to the whole deal was to keep moving. Get up, get out of the house, and go somewhere. He was at Starbucks by 7:30 am. Sitting there, he could feel that he was part of something. For the rest of the time, he also played golf, read books, watched movies, and cooked, as well as learned other languages. Everything didn’t change until he caught a flyer out of the corner of his eyes when he was leaving the market, which the big fashionable company wanted to hire senior citizens to be an intern. Ben was determined to have an interview and he was hired.

       Jules was a beautiful young boss with 220 employees. Originally, there were only 25 employees. After 4 months, it was up to 220. The company grew up quickly and successfully. She was strong, determined business woman, but the problem was that she was not able to get along with seniors. Ben didn’t receive any mails from his boss for two days? How could Ben work with her? As a matter of fact, a lot of seniors have plenty of life and work experience, but working with youngster is not easy. With the generation gap, they usually have different perspective and opinion toward issues. Therefore, seniors might not be accustomed to seeing what the young generation do. As I know, youngster does not like working with seniors. Here are some points. First, seniors might think they are older than we are. How can a punch of young people order them to do something? Second, seniors might think they have plenty of experience that a bunch of young people don’t have. Why do these young people need to tell them how to do? Finally, seniors might not like the ways youngster do. I liked Ben because he could notice a lot of detail things around him and instead of telling others how to do, he was active to help co-workers out at work, so everyone liked him. One day, Ben saw Jules’ driver drink something before hitting the road. Ben walked toward him and said,” I hope that you tell Jules that you are uncomfortable today, so you could not drive and I will cover for you. otherwise, I will tell Jules in person.”

         Ben had an opportunity to be closed to his boss. In the car, Ben observed what Jules needed and also bought her a soup to warm her stomach, which Jules didn’t eat anything all day long. When she smelled the soup, she was pleased and the soup made her heart warm. However, not liking his observation, she hoped he could get transferred instead. Before arriving home, Jules fell asleep in the car, which it never happened before. It means Jules was comfortable while Ben’ drove. She started liking Ben being around and changed her mind. The next day, with Ben not coming to pick her up from home, she knew he was transferred. She went to that department and apologized to him as well as asked if he was willing to work with her again. For this part, I have to say I admire her. A boss can say that to his or her employees. As of that day, the relationship between Jules and Ben became tight.

          One day, Jules and Ben went to San Francisco on business because Jules wanted to hire a CEO to run her business in order that she could have more time to stay home and accompany her family. In the hotel, Jules was upset and couldn’t help telling Ben that her husband had an affair, which Ben already knew. Ben told her, “I work with you and drive you to somewhere every day. I knew why ATF was a success. No one else is ever going to have that kind of commitment to your company. It is a dream that big beautiful exciting thing that you created, isn’t it? Now you’re going to give it up in the hopes that your husband will stop having an affair? I don’t see how that adds up. You should feel nothing but great about what you’ve done.”

      The relationship between them is like employee and best friend, who can count on each other. This relationship is amazing and wonderful. It doesn’t happen in any companies, but I believe that it exists. Sigmund Freud said,” Love and work, Work and love. That is all there is.” I want to say,” Employee and family members and Family members and Employee. This is all there is too.” Sometimes working time is longer than being with family members.