I recently finished up my first week of work at my first real job. I’m working in university admissions, which is…pretty different from everything I trained to do, but the university environment is definitely one I’m used to, so it’s less of a stretch.
What is a stretch? Getting out of bed, definitely. I stuck to a pretty decent sleep schedule in Vienna, but I was definitely going to bed later and getting up later than I am here, which has been an adjustment. I’ll think “I can definitely stay up to watch one more episode of Luther; it’s only ten o’clock!” And then I remember that I have to go to bed at 10:45 if I’m going to get up at 6:45, so it’s actually time to jump in the shower and power down all the electronics.
Sad puppy is sad.
I don’t have a car yet, so right now I’m biking to work, which is pretty cool. I have not traditionally been confident on bicycles (or skates, or skis, or anything that went between my feet and the ground), so getting the hang of that has been really great. After all, the expression is “just like riding a bike” for a reason, right? So I put on my workout gear, through my nice clothes in my bike basket and peddle off, the theme to Call the Midwife playing in my head.
Like me, she is good at many things–just not riding bicycles.
I’ve been surprised by the way that time feels different now. As a student, eight hours was a long time: I was in class from 9 until about 2 or 3, with a break for to grab lunch, and then it was time to play pool, chat with my friends, and read the paper (assuming no one had moved the bar’s copy of The Economist). Now, I finally understand all those planners that divvy your time out by the hour; that’s totally how my schedule works. I have this meeting to attend, and then these interviews to do, and then I’ll squeeze in some writing time before preparing for this other presentation. It flies by, and then the six hours or so I have in the evenings is filled up with making dinner, folding the laundry I did the day before, and maybe watching something on Netflix (I’d like to take this time to recommend Orange is the New Black, because it is incredibly funny).
Also, I finally understand what adults meant when they said they “had no time to read”. When most of your time outside of work is spent getting ready for work, travelling to and from work, and then taking care of things around the house, your actual leisure time is surprisingly small. I’m going to have to be really deliberate about making sure I do read, because even though I make it sound like a chore, I love it, and I need to make sure I don’t just let it slip through the cracks.
What do you guys do to make sure there’s time for the things you love? Any Netflix recommendations?
marillenbaum 