Brexit Britain, from an inside lens

You may have read a few stories about all the drama coming out of Brexit Britain, but what if I told you that I had a strikingly unique story? It’s a story of the personal account of someone that entered the UK immediately after the referendum, only to leave a few years later, as the exit date was finalized. But what’s special about that? After all, there are many personal accounts as well as entire books dedicated to the essence of Brexit; therefore, what insight could he possibly have that hasn’t already been shared thousands of times over?

Perhaps I shall start with the atmosphere following his arrival, and go from there...

In East Europe, just before his flight, he encountered the turned-over and semi-broken “Big Ben” clock in an amusement park called Minieuroland. At this point, his curiosity had piqued. Of course, he’d read the Brexit headlines in the papers prior to the flight, and thus he was aware of what he was up against, but he began to enquire more. It had upset and divided a large number of people — but was there more to it? He knew a branch of his family had been living in England for more than a decade, therefore, what did they have to say about it?

“It will never happen. The English need us. It would be a complete disaster.”

The wheels were set in motion, when, to his surprise, he was invited to stay and work with this same branch of the family. They had some high hopes for him. He didn’t want to let them down, either. But, this is when he really should have listened to his intuition; he acknowledges now, that it’s seldom wrong. In any case, he flew into the UK determined to find out the truth. What was the real reason for this Brexit madness, and was it justified? So truth be told, he went through the entire immigration process — the whole shebang — with the advantage of family ties. It was all done straight as an arrow or in other words: ‘by the book’. He even planned to attend a university but fell back on just working until Brexit had been finalized. However, after jumping through all these hoops without encountering much resistance, his troubles thereafter began to merge with all of those that Brexit entailed.

It just so happened, that he landed his first job in the field of his study (with a diverse team of trainers from all over), about a month into his stay. Of course, his classes were full and he had a few clients here and there. But, he’d come to the realization, pretty quickly, that he would need a second job, or a ‘real' day job, as the gym was saturated with trainers that were all fighting to acquire clients.

Luckily, he found what he was looking for...

For all intents and purposes, it was not permissible to disclose the particular details of this second job, at least whilst in England.

But to be fair, it was a ‘real’ job that paid the bills. It was an important job, that utilized his expertise and unique knowledge. And he made clear his intentions of working only up until the exit date, even though he was initially persuaded to stay longer. Before his departure, which was a narrow escape, he was charged with presiding over an entire building — the whole caboodle — not to mention, looking after the requests of the staff and carrying out the duties that came with the job description. He was always busy — so much so, that he likened firing off emails on the company phone to that of a submachine gun. Things were ‘happening’ all the time.

“Stuff breaks and things need replacing and updating.”

Of course, some days weren’t so bad; but mostly, he felt overworked and underappreciated. And there was additional drama and office politics. His overlord was a brilliant Mr. Hyde. Indeed, he even thought the clever bullying was isolated to him alone — but it turned out that Mr. Hyde had been pushing the buttons of the rest of the team under him too. So, it took about a year before the receptionist snapped, and there was an investigation. A mutiny followed within his team and peace was restored, for a short while. But the receptionist had had enough, and it didn’t take long at all until she was out the door, just the same.

So he ran the place the best he could. He happily took on the extra work and expected the relief of recruits to come in time. But he was juggling a monstrous load for months; until a year went by and he still did not have a full team. He was beginning to get disgruntled at having to carry the extra weight on his shoulders, for so long. His wrath thus emerged — in succession — when he was extended beyond measure. As a consequence, he planned his leave.

The seed was planted, and he looked for work beyond the office. But Brexit caused a freeze that permeated throughout England and his yearning for home across the pond was growing like cancer. When the cancer was a gigantic tumour, a few months down the road, due to ongoing hostility — which happened to coincide with the final exit date — he booked a vacation for home, for a cure. The cure was freedom, which was gained at the expense of losing and starting over, again.