I was several years working in a five star hotel, my experience there was very pleasant especially for its beautiful landscapes and scenery.
In the hotel life, holidays are the busiest days, because the hotel is full and we usually work overtime, everyone is willing to sacrifice their traditions, especially me, because they pay more and the tips are better. My brother used to call me Ebenezer Scrooge because I never stayed to share with them, I never went to their birthdays and I spent Christmas working.
I remember it was one thirty-first of December two thousand eleven when the boss called me to ask me if I was going to stay working until the next day, as for me it was an unusual question I told him.
"Sure, why do you ask?".
The boss replied "Since you are a father now I thought you wanted to be with your family".
I said "Today is a day like any other day".
The boss laughed and agreed with me "Exactly, all you're going to do is get drunk and spend more money than you need to, I think it's silly too" In a way I felt like we were making fun of the end of the year event.
We set up the tables around a pool that is made of artificial stones with a waterfall cascading over the rocks, it is also surrounded by a beautiful tropical garden next to the beach which is an excellent view.
The customers began to arrive, as was customary the waitresses peeked in to marvel at the elegant dresses worn by the visitors, a good group of bagpipes appeared and their music was appreciated by the customers and the workers.
We all rejoiced when the countdown started, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, the year was over, rockets were launched from a ship and exploded with colored lights that reflected in the ocean, the boss invited me to eat the twelve grapes but I mockingly told him that in my house we ate twelve pineapples, we laughed for a while, said happy new year, we toasted and I went back to work.
After two hours I went up to the office and my boss was crying.
"What happened boss, why are you crying?".
"My mother just passed away, she was fine, she had nothing, she was partying".
Among the many things he told me he mentioned that he could no longer give a happy new year to his mother.
He then asked me to go home and hug my parents. Obviously I had to refuse, I wasn't going to leave him like that, on the contrary, I tried harder to make sure he didn't have any problems that night.
Seeing my boss like this changed my way of thinking, there are traditions that deserve to be celebrated with family and friends, because our loved ones will not always be with us, we must take a moment to be with them and let those moments fill us with beautiful and eternal memories.