Work Life

When you make a career choice as I have, you spend a lot of hours at the office.  In the almost 11 years since my college graduation, I've gone down a narrow career path that has resulted in very little "upward mobility" in the "ranks", as it were.  That said, I have been fortunate to meet and become friends with a few wonderful and talented individuals along the way.  Some of the friendships "stuck" and we are still in communication and occasionally, we have the opportunity to visit and catch up on life and whatnot since we moved on in different directions.  For these people, I am grateful.  I learned many important lessons from them and those lessons were not necessarily all about "work life".

As I have spent many hours at my j-o-b, I realize that a big part of daily life takes place within the walls of whatever institution in which my job resides.  Notice, I said institution.  My fellow inmates, *ahem*, I mean colleagues and I trudge through the mud and muck of our jobs together day in and day out.  Sometimes, we laugh and cut up; sometimes, we bicker and complain.  Many days, we just get on each others' nerves, plain and simple.  When you spend 40 hours (or more) a week with people, you get to know them on a level that their outside "life" never gets to understand.  You have a bond that is unique and undeniable.  Quite simply: You just have to be here to "get it".

But, a lot of times, that is just where the relationship ends.  Even if you have an outside of work relationship with folks, you tend to spend a lot of that time discussing what happens AT work.  For most folks, that's cool.  With me, I would love to bridge the gap with a couple of my work friends and introduce them to my home life.  Well, maybe.  I tried that a few times, and with some it was great....others, well, not so much!  It got messy and dramatic, and well, creepy.

There's an old adage that goes "At the end of life, nobody ever says 'I wish I spent more time at the office'".  While I'm sure that is so very true, I don't want to feel that I spent 2,080 hours per year in a place that was an epic waste of my life and personality!  Many days, I'm just too worn out at the end of the day to conduct a "non-work" life that doesn't involve the three tasks of cooking a meal, cleaning up, and going to bed!  Nate and I ask each other, "How was your day?" and the answer is most frequently, "It was a day...."

Guess you just had to be there...

:) LAH