Changing: an opportunity for reflection

Fifteen is just a two-digit number, if you look at it in arithmetic terms.
The same number has a completely different meaning when it stands for a period of time: fifteen years, an amount of time that encloses a great many events of a person’s life, capable of real impact. Indeed, when we find ourselves having to reflect on this number, we cannot help taking stock of our lives. Now it is happening to me: after fifteen years we are moving to a new office. We are leaving the place where I have come almost every morning, where I have parked my car, stopped by the newsstand, and walked into my office greeting and invariably asking “anything new?”.
It is not just a matter of routine. We are leaving the place where we created Job in Tourism, where we have travelled our route towards the hospitality world, lived dramatic moments such as the twin tower attack, experienced the crisis of printed paper and the development of the web, and where – without believing in it – I approved our presence in FaceBook and now (without deserving it personally) we have 28,000 friends. During these fifteen years the world has changed, and now, to my consternation, I see it condensed in a few full boxes that the mover will soon take away. As I filled the boxes, I came across things I had lost memory of: the eagle Marriot had awarded me for an article I wrote on them, a cabinet of photographs that were not yet digital, letters of appreciation, and also some criticisms. At the beginning, we had to explain what Job in Tourism did, and it was not always easy. Out of a drawer came letters where we described our activity. A world ago.
We decided to move to a new office because , in a short time, we are expanding our activity by opening a section for the recruitment of human resources, and therefore we need a dedicated area. It is necessary to act with resolve: the world has deeply changed and does not forgive laziness (which is true for everybody); we need to be proactive, and to seize all available opportunities.
Who knows what we will be talking about in another fifteen years!