Charlotte's Second Act

This big red monstrosity was the only thing Charlotte knew for the last 20 years of her life. To most people it was just a red barn that served as the location and namesake of her burgeoning company, but to her it was once a lifeline. The suggestion that someone wanted to buy Red Barn Bagel Co. was a mixture of elation and devastation, excitement that she had built something so big that someone wanted to buy it out and she could start new adventures elsewhere, and devastation that the literal barn and birthplace of her company were also no longer belong to her.

Charlotte spent days pacing around her office and home, wondering why in the world she felt such a feeling of existential dread. A buyer meant only good things-she could make good money on this deal and would be free to do literally anything, like an early retirement. She could sell the house, travel to Bali or whatever, go start a new venture, volunteer somewhere like people who have time, the possibilities were endless! But no matter how many good things she listed, she could not shake the numbing feeling of sadness inside of her.

Late one night, Charlotte couldn’t sleep and drove to the barn to help clear her head. As she opened the door she tripped on the same doorway threshold that had been there for years, and immediately felt an emotional connection. She had tripped on this threshold thousands of times in the last 20 years, but this time felt so familiar. She turned on a few kitchen lights and stood in the middle of the floor with pause. The ovens and kitchen now stood where the former owner's rundown cast iron stove that cooked her meals once stood. The packaging supplies sat where her old bed once was, the non-slip floor and industrial windows replaced the humble worn out hardwood and chipped paint that she had first seen when she moved in. For the first time in years, Charlotte had a sensory implosion of memories from her past.

It was once just a humble red barn down the street from her favorite park that she always passed on her way to work. Then came the brutal divorce, the one that left her with nothing but the clothes she could fit in a suitcase and virtually no savings, no prospects. She couldn’t afford an apartment in the nicer part of town, and had no place to go. She saw a for sale sign in front of the barn, but never any visitors, and squatted there for a couple of weeks while looking for a place. Her ex had trashed her credit score and savings and she couldn’t get anyone to rent to her, so she crashed on a friend's couch for a while.

Almost a year had passed and the barn still hadn’t sold, so Charlotte looked it up. It had no kitchen besides an old cast iron stove that was technically hooked up, no running water or heat, and the whole structure was in need of serious repairs. But it was selling for $5,000 in a rundown part of town, and Charlotte had the first good thought in her brain for over a year, I’m going to buy it, I'm going to own and live in that barn for real, she remembers those exact thoughts. Her living situation with her friend had deteriorated, she had no support system or other friends and she had been in a constant loop of anger, frustration, sadness and content boredom for over a year. She had absolutely no idea or plan on how to live in that place, but it was going to be hers and that was the only thing that got her out of bed the morning she went to the bank to get the check.

Charlotte slept on an air mattress and lived like a homeless person while renovating the barn over the first two years she lived there to make it livable. She experienced cold winters and hot summers, rain pouring through holes in the roof and taking care not to burn the place down while cooking breakfast. Over time the smell of rotting wood was replaced with new wood and paint, and the barn resembled a makeshift home that had electricity and plumbing. Charlotte would come home after her shift and finish or start another project on the barn. She worked at a local bakery chain and at the end of each day took home the baked goods and dough that they had to otherwise throw out, and she made bagels and other items for herself as a free meal often.

It wasn’t until she dropped off some treats for a sick friend one day that she realized she could try selling them for extra cash. And the Red Barn Bagel Company was born, out of the sweat, many many tears and bullish self-reliant hard work that Charlotte had out in. While she hadn’t ever dreamed it would be anything more than some quick cash when she started, once it became something viable Charlotte couldn’t let this stroke of luck she found in her meaningless life get away, because she had quite literally nothing much else to lose.

15 years later, Charlotte spent more time in an adjacent office they built nearby the barn than making bagels, but this was the first time in many years that Charlotte was alone in the barn, and it spun her right back into time to those first few days. That’s why she felt dread, she built this place and it was hers and hers alone, no one could take it from her and now she was oddly enough in a position that she could give it away. But did she want to? This was the birthplace and baptism of the current Charlotte, the one she never thought could exist. And it was then she realized, that if phase of her life created her current self, what could the next phase create? And her decision was made for her. A life by choice, not obligation like her marriage, or survival like her early days in the barn, or even responsibility to keep showing up each day to work. Now she had a completely free choice, to continue living by her own rules that she created for herself.

Two weeks later she sold Red Barn, bade farewell to her amazing employees, and with a suitcase in the trunk she set off for a cross country road-trip with no set end date. She took a bite of her bagel and smiled wide as she turned out of the driveway, forward and onward.