This is Good-Bye

I recently discovered a genre of writing called Flash nonfiction. Flash pieces (fiction or non-fiction) are short writings (usually less than 1000 words long) that some people describe as part story, part poem. I'm intrigued and decided to try it out! This piece is a non-fiction reflection in Flash form about a recent event. It's 197 words long.

Her kelly-green-dress radiated like new spring grass. Frosted cupcakes, pink balloons for her new beginnings and our bittersweet good-bye. Death and resurrection. The Easter story. This vibrant colleague, a casualty of downsizing. Leaving, untenured, unsupported by a department with undefined, unattainable expectations.

I don’t know the nuances of the decision. I wasn’t in the discussion. I DO know our academic training homes in on weakness, pursues holes in arguments, passages to mistakes, and tracks incomplete might-have-been opportunities.  Never mind being hired during COVID. Never mind the way she role-modeled boundary setting. Never mind her clear communication and self-advocacy for the neurodiverse brain. I aspire to live the self-compassion shown by this colleague. I am confident she will find a new path. And still I grieve what might have been.

I wish for a workspace where this colleague and my creative ADHD daughter can thrive. But the world is still catching up. We CLAIM diversity of thought, culture, approaches. America, land of innovation. Yet we maintain hidden curricula of ambiguous expectations, then chastise those who cannot measure up. Can we create oases of refuge and relief? Contrastive places where brains of all types are welcomed, embraced, celebrated...?