What a Wonderful Life

Chapter 1: Goodbye

                "If you're reading this, then it probably means that I am no longer around.  I didn't want to make a big deal about it, but I want whoever the reader may be to know that I had my reasons for doing what I did.  There's really nothing left for me in this cruel world anymore.  So I'm leaving to a new world, one which is....hopefully better than this one.  Whoever reads this, I hope your life is better than mine.

                    Sincerely,

                   Alexander Williams (died at age 30)"

               Those were the words I decided to write on my suicide note.  I guess I didn't really put much thought into it.  But like I said in the note, I didn't want to make a big deal out of my suicide.  Many details were left out since I knew the reader probably didn't care why I died, most likely being more concerned with the dead corpse they stumbled upon.  Looking back at it, the moment I signed my name on the note sent chills up my spine, like I was engraving my own tombstone.   Still, suicide felt like the best option to escape the hell I've experienced since I graduated high school.  It's been twelve years since I entered the real world and nothing has gone my way since. 

               The clock rang, signaling closing time for all offices in the building.  I clicked the red pen I used for the note, put it in the pencil holder nearby, and ripped the suicide note out of a notepad.  Taking the punch card from under my desk, I left my office and trotted towards the exit.  Before leaving, I took one final glance at my office and laughed a bit. 

              "Why am looking back at a job I hate?", I asked myself.

              Don't get me wrong, the job itself wasn't bad.  The office space was big, the working conditions were decent, and the my coworkers were nice people (especially an editor I worked with named Kevin).  If there was any criticism I would give my job as an editor, it would be the pay ($4.50 an hour?  That's just cruel).  No, it wasn't the job itself that I hated, it was the one who was above me, Elizabeth Anderson (or Liz as I like to call her).

              The New York Sound 's current president is known around the workplace for all the wrong reasons.  The main reason many employees didn't get along with her was the way she overworked us, basically turning me and the other editors into slaves.  We worked our asses off with little pay or promotion.  The reason many of us were underpaid was the company's failure to adapt to the rise of the internet.  Me (as well as a few other employees) asked her to change the way she distributed the magazine, but her arrogance towards me and the smaller employees made her refuse to fix the problem.  She kept us all underpaid until we either quit or gave up looking for new jobs at other outlets (many of which weren't hiring for the same reason Liz wouldn't give raises).  Eventually, only me and Kevin remained as the company's last editors.  Liz is a terrible person, but the thing I hate the most about her is that....her position could've been mine.  All the problems she caused could've been solved if only I had been chosen instead of her.  Even so, former president Roger Brown thought she could "bring in more readers" and made her president after he retired.  The truth of the matter is she didn't do shit to earn her job but go out with Mr. Brown's son for a few months.  Meanwhile, I've worked at the company for over ten years and still haven't gotten a damn pay raise.  The only reason I never left this job was my love for the music industry, but my god, I hated Liz with a passion....