You could say I was on a hiatus from writing. You would be 100% correct.
For the past year, I’ve been gone, sucked into the monotony of a life I didn’t like. I felt stifled in my work-life balance, unable to tear myself away from the work I was doing long enough to fully enjoy my life as woman in her 20s. My previous employers aren’t to blame – I just wasn’t ready for the work that I was doing. This also lead to frequent disagreements with my partner, and since we were already going through some major transitions (*cough* humble brag *cough*), home-life was extremely stressful.
But I recently found myself in a new job, and with it, surprising moments of clarity and…a feeling of home.
My current job is (slightly) along the train route. Enough so that I can walk from the train station. While it’s a 20 minute walk, I don’t mind the exercise, nor do I mind the time to myself to think about…well, anything. On top of that, I love public transportation.
Yes, you read that correctly. I love it. Or, I should say, I love taking the train. (I took two buses to get to my previous job, and both were in less-than-stellar neighborhoods, frequently equaling awkward conversations with older men first asking if I was pregnant and then telling me that I look good. Um. Okay.) I love not having to worry about where the next stop is, that I can stick my nose in a book without consequence, and not fearing how close that bus just came to hitting that cyclist (seriously, I’m not sure if there’s anything more panic attack-inducing than watching a bus driver turn a corner with oncoming traffic approaching.).
But you can learn so much from public transportation. On the train yesterday, a young woman with a learning disability smiled wide as she looked at my bag. She laughed and exclaimed, “I love your bear! Did you make it?” When I said, “No, but thank you.” She wasn’t disappointed. She didn’t judge. She only said, “It makes me happy.”
You make me happy. Thank you for helping to welcome me back to the world.
So Tuachair 