The Loneliest Job In The World

Anonymous 2m 418 #potus

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

Sitting alone in the Oval Office after his long first day, staring out the window at the bustling city before him, he was not the mayor nor the governor of Washington, D.C. Rather, he was the President of the United States of America. He campaigned and spoke from his heart, he amassed idealizations and visions of his own plans, sharing with his supporters and other potential voters. He’d defeated his opponent fairly.

Before he became the leader and as the leader of the free world, he had felt a sense of responsibility and duty to serve his country in some way. Nothing could have truly ever prepared him for the responsibilities he would assume, the knowledge he would obtain, and the experience of having control over the strongest military alliance in the world, but he had never could have imagined, nor prepared for, the absolute loneliness and isolation that comes with the job of being the leader of a country.

As he sat there, he thought back to the words of one of his predecessors, William Howard Taft, who had warned of such loneliness of the job. “I never dreamed such loneliness and desolation of heart possible,” Taft had said. Despite the constant activity around him and seeming busyness of his day-to-day responsibilities, the President felt empty and alone. He had advisors and staff, but they were there to do a job, not to be his friends. His family was there for him, but they too had their own lives and responsibilities and appearances that they had to keep up in front of the President.

He missed the days when he could just walk down the street and talk to people, or sit in a coffee shop and read the newspaper. He missed the anonymity and simplicity of his old life. As he sat there, staring out the window, he realized that the loneliest job in the world was not the one he had, but the one he had left behind. He could never go back to that old life, pretending as if nothing happened. Regardless of his actions, he has landed in the history books for all humankind to acknowledge. All he can do now, like those who came before him, is appreciate the fact that he made it this far, and cope with the loneliness and isolation, while appreciating the rare opportunity, against all odds, that he is and always will be someone who has served as the President of the United States of America.

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