THE POWER OF NO

Companies, big or small, lay off employees in Dubai these past few months. However, our company is the complete opposite of this scenario. They are hiring more staff instead. Guaranteed that there will be enough workforce in our department, I planned a 10-day leave on May to commemorate the first year death anniversary of my dad. The operations manager said she accepted my request but I should wait for the new employees. She said I should ask the admin manager too before I book the ticket.

Today, I saw our admin manager (which is very rare) so I asked her if I can request for the leave form. The conversations are as follows:
Admin: You are requesting for a leave?
Me: Yes but it's for May.
Admin: You can't take a leave.
Me: Why not?
Admin: Because you just took a leave.
Me: That's last year. It was an emergency leave. 14 days. I haven't fully consumed any annual leave.
Admin: No. I don't think you can take your leave.
Me: Uhhh....
Admin: *walks away*

At first, I felt bad. I am mad. I want to scream it out. She did not even ask me as to why am I requesting it. She didn't even ask how long will it be. She never opened her heart to fully comprehend the situation yet she closed it with such a harsh answer. A NO.

In reality, it's getting on my nerves. But I can't let that happen especially this week which is already rough and stressful. So I called my best friend, the Gift of the Gap. Okay, I will try to put my situation in her shoes. Maybe it's not a good timing and she's thinking of other stuff related to our company which is more important than my leave. Maybe she's having a bad day and that's just her initial reaction. Maybe she's just kidding. Maybe.... The list is endless.
 

Two letter word. NO.
Powerful. Deep. And simple.

It's a simple word. It's very easy to comprehend. But why is that we cannot use it properly? People are using it for the wrong ideas with its essence being trashed.

When it comes to our loved ones, we always say no to their small favors very easily. Our thinking is that, they will understand me because they know me. But when it comes to other people, we cannot say no because we want to be "in" or we want to portray a different version of ourselves since they don't know us yet. Sounds familiar? The examples of wrong usage are endless. Our norm (and stupidity) of saying 'no' is infinite. The ideology of how it is being used is so wrong that we cannot notice its impact. Why?

We have to be reminded that we have choices. These choices are the answers to the things that we can't control...

Yes.
Yes to commitments, to dreams, to achieving goals, to success of everyone, to love, to adventure, to "YOLO", to the life ahead of us.

Maybe.
Maybe we can do something. Maybe there's another way. Maybe we can check it first. Maybe it's not the right time. Maybe there's something better.

No.
No to the things and words that hurts you, me, and other people.
No to the ideas that kills the passion, integrity, and principles of this society.
No to the toxic people and relationships that hold us back to realize that we deserve better.
No to everything that is not helping us to be a better person.
No to the wrong ways of this world.

We have a choice of what to use.
And that simple choice can change something... maybe someone's life or someone's way of living. Who knows? One day you will realize, that maybe it's time to change YOU.