Are we out of the woods yet?
Have I ever mentioned how much I love camping? While others fret about the lack of facilities that keep us clean and moisturized, I begin to shed the awkward pounds of routine, the terrifying weight of expectation and the artificial complexity of life. I dream of super cars but under starlight. I no longer worry about meeting my paltry daily goal of ten thousand steps. The banality of a semi successful life is highlighted but not in a condescending fashion. When you camp right, nature merely says, ‘I am here if you need.’
I squeezed in a bit of camping this long weekend. The United States celebrated its independence and I as a part of her working force drove like everyone else through crowded interstates for merely two days to ensure no vacation was used. They come at a premium here and god-forbid if you need more than a couple of days to unwind.
It has been a crazy month of June but pretending that it was an outlier would be a lie. That epiphany came when I was sitting at a fancy bar at downtown Detroit hotel completely sober and discussing critical customer handling strategy at 0100, stone-faced and deadly serious. As I drove back on an empty interstate, I wanted to question the sense of it all but the fact that I was due for a meeting in about 7 hrs kept me honest.
I have wholeheartedly underestimated the severity and intensity of working here as compared to Germany. I knew coming in, that, vacation days would be slashed . But what I had forgotten about is the speed and agility at which at my colleagues and my customers work it. It isn’t the lack of planning but rather the inability to do so. Fluid business conditions come with rapid prototyping solutions that hold valid for a week. I am overbooked on meetings, overflowing with critical email that need correctly worded communication and am behind on my task list that would differentiate my quality. Yet, the content of my work is fascinating. I am in an industry that I love. And I am at cusp of affairs where I might affect the bottom of some line. That is an addictive mix. One that makes you get your lunch quickly in the cafeteria, run late evenings on a hungry stomach, drink too much coffee and at worst add distance to those who really matter.
I have never ever lost a month like I lost June. I went to work and when I wasn’t at work, I was obsessed thinking about it. Meanwhile, my car is due her service. My in-laws visited from India. We visited Canada twice. My best friend had his baby and my brother and his family narrowly missed the bomb attack at the Istanbul Airport. All this happened in June but I am registering all of it now with a terrible phase delay.
There is a way out of this. It will require tremendous discipline which I don’t have. July has begun with clear skies, starry nights, fireworks and me going to bed early in freshly laundered sheets.
And if with momentum, countries have become independent. How hard can be the work-life balance?
