The Office Christmas Party - an unexpected triumph

I forgot to mention the office Christmas party. That much talked about event of the working year, where people get drunk and do stupid things, and return to work fresh faced in January, pretending nothing ever happened.

This year was no exception. People got drunk and did stupid things. I don’t drink, so I was the only sober one amongst a sea of twats. I got cornered by the office weirdo (even weirder than me, which is really saying something). He proceeded to talk to me, and accidentally spit on my face, and generally piss me off. While he babbled on about how quiet I was, blah blah blah, I looked around at everyone else, and they were all laughing and looking very happy, i.e. drunk. And I was having a horrible time, as usual. Never in my life have I been to an office ‘event’ that I enjoyed.

So I stood up and left, feeling terribly liberated. Something inside me snapped, and I refused to be part of the office bollocks any more. From here on in, I refuse to go to another Christmas party. I REFUSE. I always sit in the corner in a pretty dress, watching as everyone around me gets stupider and stupider, getting more and more unsteady on their feet, and then saying things they should regret, but don’t, because they’ve forgotten it by the morning. Last year a girl from the office began sobbing uncontrollably and actually placed her head in my lap, and confessed to me a number of things she really shouldn’t have, and then, when I saw her next, she didn’t acknowledge it, or even seem to remember it.

My walking out of the party, and slipping into the night feeling very free, was a very good thing. Once I would have cared about what people thought, or sacrificed my own feelings to please other people. Now I’m learning not to.