It’s all uphill from here!

Dear Reader, 

I feel that my life has been moving at high-speed for the past year. In October 2018, I started a few part-time jobs that have taken up almost all of my time. In the beginning commuting alone was a significant daily commitment, however, now, I am more comfortable in remote/ closer-to-home positions. In this past year I have been doing a lot of traveling (yay!) and working everyday (yikes!). Now my daily “routine” consists of sleep/ commute/ work (my part-time jobs, personal obligations, and long-term goals included) with the occasional date with my boyfriend. It hasn’t always been this way for me. At other times in my life I have prioritized friends, education, and experiences.

I think that this current “work-everyday” period will realistically last until Christmas (double yikes!). I am thinking about this now, because today is Columbus Day (or “Indigenous Peoples Day”) and I was in the office all day. While many do have this day off, unfortunately, today and even part of the weekend were necessary work days to plan for an upcoming project.

When non-stop work becomes a routine, the days have an uncanny ability to melt together into indistinguishable chunks of time that know no weekly boundaries. Sometimes I wonder whether if this is some sinister version of the saying “time flies.” While the maxim goes “time flies when you’re having fun,” it seems to me that time also flies when the weekdays bleed into the weekends and it’s almost Tuesday but you feel that you never really got to experience Saturday or Sunday.

Work is, of course, necessary. Without my jobs I certainly wouldn’t be able to travel so much. However, at the same time, rest, relaxation, and focus on one’s self and personal growth is also prooobably healthy. Oversimplifying my life pushes me to reconsider how I spend my time. As we near winter and the new year (yes in my head this is all coming up very quickly) dawns , I think about how I would like to live in 2020. How realistic is it for me to keep up with this work 7-days-a-week lifestyle? When will prioritizing friendships and hobbies become a part of my life again? I also seriously need to make a commitment to personal fitness now before it’s too late. 

I will consider this post to be a friendly note-to-self as a way to say, “hey, let’s add figure out work/life balance to the agenda shall we?” I don’t know who you are, Dear Reader, but I do hope that you will take a minute to reflect. When the days become weeks and the months become years, I hope you will be able to look back and be happy with all that has happened. And, if not, then this is a reminder to both of us now to make a date with ourselves to reconsider. I hope it all turns out well for you today, tomorrow, and the years to come, Dear Reader, I really do.

Love,

Raven