I drag you out of bed very early in the morning, every day. Whether it’s Saturday or Monday, I pull you out while everyone is still enjoying the benefits of a weekend. Sometimes I can feel that you want a little more minutes to gather your strength, but there’s barely time for that because I always have somewhere to rush to, something to sort out.

I know the amount of pressure I put you under, the stress and difficulties you have to endure and I’m really sorry. I’m sure you know the saying that goes like ants build in summer, collect their food so that they can eat in winter. You probably heard the proverb that says work hard today so that you can relax tomorrow. I’m sure you understand the concept of these, so we have to work while the conditions still allow us so that we can relax later.

I’m trying to build a life that will allow us and everyone who depends on us to enjoy the benefits of that, to work and suffer a little less than we did, and most importantly, to prepare a path for them to start somewhere better than we did. Unfortunately, one has to suffer for that to become a reality, and that happens to be you and me at this point.

But one day we’ll sit back and reflect with smiles on our faces. We’ll be like, “Do you remember our first shop, the one that had three shelves and barely a customer inside, that was too ambitious to go that big with only one product to sell, and sorry we couldn’t make it work”

Do you remember the one we moved into after? The countless issues we had to deal with, I wonder why the owner allowed us to rent the place because it looked like she wanted the whole thing for herself, and we will laugh about it.

I'll remind you that I still miss the car we used literally for everything, for personal use, to stock everything we were selling. We will laugh about those times we had to wash it inside out because we applied brakes unexpectedly while carrying eggs even on the seats, breaking dozens of them in the process.

I’ll remind you about the time when everyone was locked behind doors in fear of spreading the COVID-19 disease, but you and I were among those who were out there searching for replacement stock. We couldn’t stay at home because customers needed eggs and we had to keep our promise which is delivering them fresh from the farm.

I wish I could say it hasn’t been all gloom, the were brighter days to cherish, but I can’t really think of any, between lost friends, a lot of money, and lost privileges to sit in a restaurant and spoil ourselves with a delicious meal for no reason, to be able to buy us something nice just like any other business person or a working person would do.

We can’t even take that much needed break to just sit and relax, to actually pick up the phone without thinking “What was I supposed to do, why is it ringing, who might be calling, what they could possibly be looking for”, to actually have no reason to worry when it goes off because employees and their manager will be taking care of the business, suffering on our behalf. It will all be fun because all the struggles, the pain, the sleepless nights will be behind us.

We lost the ability to just get in the car and drive not because there’s a pressing matter that needs to be attended to but to just refresh, get fresh air, cool the mind down, you get what I’m saying, right?

It’s been 7 more years of no break, no fun, no anything that doesn’t directly or indirectly contribute to our cause but I promise you, one day it’s all gonna be the story that motivates someone else to get started.

They say when you have everything, you also gain a lot of people, but when you have nothing, you lose everyone. I can attest to that. But I hope you don’t get worked out with the sudden fame when everyone suddenly loves you. I hope you don’t forget where we’ve been. I hope you remember the friends we lost because we couldn’t meet their expectations. I hope we get to apologize for the path we chose and most important make them proud when they realize we didn’t make all the sacrifices for nothing or to just give up along the way, but we’ve seen it through.

I must acknowledge that we kept it together, through all the hardships, the rainy days, and the burning summer sun rays. We kept it going.

I also wanna take this moment to say I’m deeply sorry for the painful goodbyes you had to say to those you thought would never leave, I’m sorry for the pain you endured over the years, the struggles, the disappointments and I promise you one day we will laugh about it while we enjoy the benefits all those struggles got us.

Until then, let’s work harder, endure a little more, but soon will have it all.

With love
Loid

Picture by: Tima Miroshnichenko