As I’m writing this, I just finished my first full 40 hours week working my regular day job, after 13 Months of being on furlough. I did previously say that I really would rather not go back to work until I get my vaccine shots, so thankfully I did just that this past April 19, 2021. Of course I’m technically not “fully vaccinated” until 2 weeks after the 2nd Pfizer shot, but whatever.
The first week of work was tiring, exhausting, and my body had to once again start getting used to that daily and weekly grind of my day job. I’m not here to talk about how my job is going though. I’m here to share my thoughts on how my way of living has been altered again. Needless to say, 13 Months of just staying at home, was a blessing and a curse.
It was a blessing, because I was able to dedicate a lot more time on whowhatwhereswhy, and I would like to think that the overall quality of content for the website has definitely shown signs of improvement because of this fact. It was a blessing, because I was able to find more time on my other pastimes like video games, comic books, listening to podcasts, and watching TV. It was a blessing, because I was able to spend more time with my wife and my dog, away from my usual commitments to making content for this website, and especially away from my regular job.
My staying home all that time was a curse, because it showed me how it must be like to be able to retire. It showed me how it must be like to be well off enough to just do whatever I want to do, without having to do a regular job if I didn’t want to. It showed me what it was like to treat whowhatwhereswhy as my regular job, and I definitely like that idea. So yeah, those 13 Months was a curse, because it showed me a life that I can no longer have for the foreseeable future. I am in fact saddened by this a bit.
10 hours of my weekday is taken by my regular day job, and that includes dealing with traffic to and from work. The rest of those 14 hours in a day is taken by sleep, eating, and my time spent with my wife and doggie. The amount of hours I have left to dedicate time to this website and all my other pastimes, are just not comparable anymore to how it was when I was on furlough.
I say all that seemingly without the self-awareness that everybody else is going through this same situation. Isn’t that what’s sad about our reality though? A chunk of our time is spent on a job that we need, in order to even have a life. However, if we don’t have the time to live that life, then what’s really the point of having that job? That’s the rat race we’re all living isn’t it? That race to try to be wealthy and privileged enough to do whatever you want to do, without worrying about working a job that only seems to be getting in your way of living.
So yeah, this post seems completely unnecessary and only sounds like I’m whining. Yes it is and yes it does. It makes me feel a little better being able to write these down though, but it doesn’t change the fact that I should just snap out of it, and just make do with what I’m able to do. Let’s all make the best of it, do our darndest to keep on keeping on, and go back to work with the thought that we should feel lucky enough to be able to complain about such things.
P.S. Some random thoughts about my return to work… It felt like going back to school after a nice long summer break, and it’s a feeling I haven’t had in a very very long time. My work place has greatly been altered due to COVID-19 restrictions and safety protocols, which is something I wonder if I’ll ever really get used to. Working with people who don’t share my political beliefs is going to be a bit more tense than it’s ever been, and I just have to find clever ways of either avoiding the subject, or make that hard effort to not let things get heated.