He had been making bread for forty years. No beating around the bush or too many embellishments. There is not much more to say about his past life. I am talking about Sarge. He is currently an old man of about 65 years of age who just retired a week ago. He worked all his life as a baker and it is the only thing he knows how to do well. In his youth he did not have much education so he could not aspire to a well-paid job, he left school at an early age to help his father who was seriously ill. His mother died when he was just born, so he had a very difficult youth. After taking care of his father for several years together with his uncles, his father finally passed away. It was here that for the first time in a long time he was left alone. His father was everything to him, so his loss was the hardest thing that happened to him in life.
But despite all the difficult things he went through, he was always a very strong man, and he always kept going when things got tough. Continuing with the story, at this stage of his life he needed some kind of job to support himself, since he didn't take higher education degrees, the job offers were limited. He worked for a while as a janitor in several hotels and small establishments. But those jobs were far from his home and he had to travel a lot to get to them. Since he didn't have his own car, he had to pay for taxis, which were expensive, and when he did the math at the end of the month, a large part of his salary was spent on transportation costs, so he needed something closer.
After asking around and searching a lot, he saw an ad in the newspaper that would be the one to take him to his job, well, even the one he had until a week ago. The newspaper ad said that in his city the government was going to open a public bakery, and that they were looking for employees. The best thing about the offer was that it was close to home and that a higher education degree was not necessary to work in the establishment. The ad even said that if you didn't know how to make bread, they would teach you at the bakery. So he was happy when he read this and literally ran to the bakery to see if they would accept him.
When he arrived, the place was full, there were a lot of people applying for the position. When he saw this, he said to himself that he was too late. But luck was not yet cast, it turns out that his first-timer, Yordanis, had already gotten a position inside the bakery, and when he looked out the window, he saw him in line. Seeing this, Yordanis became sad because she knew everything he had had to go through recently. So it made her want to help him. So she went to the office where they were interviewing the applicants and asked to speak to the manager of the place.
When they were finally able to talk, he explained to her that a friend of his wanted to work at the bakery. She told him to stand in line like everyone else and that when his turn came, they would see him to decide what to do. But Yordanis kept insisting and told her about everything Sarge had been through in the last few months. So in the end, he convinced her and told her to go to the back to see him first. At that moment, Yordanis sent a text message to Sarge's phone to meet behind the bakery and let him in through the back door. You can imagine how happy Sarge was to see that.
When he turned around and passed by, the boss interviewed him and saw that he was a good young man, so she gave him the job as a baker. And he would start working in 2 days. Sarge was happy because now he had a job close to his house, so he thanked them all very much. And that's how his career began. He got up before everyone else, went to the bakery, kneaded, baked, and sold. Day after day, week after week, year after year. Sometimes he thought that if he had been paid for every loaf of bread he had ever made, he would be a millionaire. But of course, life didn't work like that. He stayed there for more than 40 years, it was his life's work.
But now he is retired, with many years behind him and again he doesn't know what to do. Now he has no apparent purpose to move forward so he feels very bad. He spent his days going to the park, or buying bread in the same bakery where he once worked, but now in his car, because yes, he has one now. And on the weekends he cleaned the house. His house is big and old, he inherited it from his parents. There was one part in particular that he hadn't cleaned thoroughly for years, the basement. There were things from his parents, old clothes and some sewing machines from his mother who was a seamstress. So he decided to clean a little of the basement every week.
So soon he was already cleaning, while cleaning he found a small box that he used to store things when he was young. The box had been there so long that he didn't even remember what was inside. He bent down to pick it up but felt a creak in his knees, they were already rusty, but in the end he was able to pick it up. When he opened it there were crumpled papers, a couple of cassettes and a notebook with the cover half torn. All of that was part of when he was in school and he was part of a singing group, there were his song lyrics and recordings of some of his songs.
Ah, that's what he said. And at that moment he remembered his past life. Maybe in a previous life he was a singer, but life decided that music was not his thing, but bread. What he did was put the box away again as if nothing had happened. The next morning, while he was drinking coffee and fighting the coffee maker, which seemed to be on strike with him, because he didn't want to work, something on TV caught his attention, it was all by chance. Another advertisement like the one he saw years ago in the newspaper that said, Talent contest for people over 65. It's never too late to start. The first thing he did was burst out laughing. And he said Yes, of course, as if he had some talent to show. But at that moment he remembered the box and his talent as a musician that he once had. So he started to think.
He knew that his life from then on would be quite monotonous, so why not give himself a chance to sing again. He already had the talent, he just needed to take the leap. So in the end he decided to go and enter the contest.
Since he hadn't sung in public for many years, he didn't even know where to start. He looked up some singing tutorials on the internet and started practicing his way through, singing quietly in the kitchen while waiting for the coffee to be ready or while cleaning up. Before he knew it, it was the day of the contest. He wasn't sure what he was more worried about, forgetting the lyrics or his neighbors recording him and uploading the video to the internet making a fool of himself. When his turn came, he sang with everything he had. Obviously he wasn't perfect, far from it, but he didn't need to be either, remember that it's a contest, not a test of perfection. When it was over, to his surprise, the audience applauded, and for the first time in a long time, he felt like he had done something of his own.
He didn't win the contest, but at least he came in second place, and that's something to admire. The prize for second place was a scholarship to receive free singing lessons and a contract with a local radio station to be the lead singer at the shows. He never imagined that this would happen, but now he had a new future at his feet thanks to another announcement. He thought again and said, it's never too late when you have the desire to get ahead, so I'm going to move forward. Now he has a second chance to start his life again, sometimes you think it's the end, but it's not like that when you have the desire to continue like Sarge does.
Credits: The images used are free to use and royalty free. They were taken from pixabay.
