IT'S my first weekend ever, and I just had my first three days in a regular work. It's refreshing and totally different, especially the pace.
Throughout my years as the top honcho in a newsroom, among the irritants are "outsiders" (friends or acquaintances) who think I have a minute to spare when I say I'm busy. And now I say, no wonder.
In the newsroom, being busy means barely having time to breath. Many times, you even withhold drinking water even when you are already very thirsty simply because that will mean going down to the pantry if you want your water cold. Since the newsroom is on the second floor and the pantry is at the rear end of the first floor, that means going all the way down and back and vice versa, just to get your water. So, no, for as long as you can still swallow, then your thirst can wait till work ends.
I guess, the world I lived in throughout my adult life is indeed different simply because everything has to be done by the day, by the hours, and even by the minute. Normal people have a whole day, even a week or a month. The work can wait. News cannot. And when you make news your work, then work can't wait.
While I'm taking a breath and enjoying it, it doesn't mean I'm not missing the busyness of the newsroom. There's a whole different vibe there, and happiness, and me, having this day to myself am just computing away in my brain, and it goes like this:
In regular work, work can wait. Deadlines come by the week, by the month, even by the year. This means, achievement also comes by the week, by the month or by the year.
In newsroom work, it's the killer deadline. Everything has to be done by the day, and can even become a continuing getting done. Like in live breaking news, the count can be in how many official sources have already been contacted, how confirmations, additional information or details may have been gathered. Those are the markers of achievements, and you can go ahead and give yourself a pat on your own back and just rejoice. But work continues. Then the day ends, and everything is done. The newspaper is done, the news are uploaded, stuff like that. It's an everyday achievement, an everyday hurrah. This you can't have in most regular work where you live by the week or by the month or by the quarter or by the year.
But of course, that all depends if you are oriented toward the bright side of life, like I am.
Thus, even as I was near-groveling from all those deadlines throughout my adult life, I was enjoying all those happy moments of achievements everyday and every hour. Now, I've slowed down, will that mean happy moments will slow down, too?
Yes, if you want to. No, not for me. I'm now counting ideas. The how's and the wherefores' matched with the who's as I build dreams in my head and look toward the future with a smile.
It's called outlook.
My life as a journalist would have been a pain had I dwelled on each heavy breath I had to take just to trudge on to the next mountain or face yet another libel case or endure the complaints and insults of yet another slighted ego or attack yet another personnel problem. But it never was. And that is because each of those were put to rest every single day and counted as yet another success for the day, another reason to smile or heave a deep sigh of relief.
Our lives as regular workers, too, will be a pain if we only look toward the 15th and 30th of the month and think of how we will spend our salaries. But I know I am much better than that... and you all should, too.
Think: Every inquiry you make is an opportunity to get to know yet another person, and that is just one. Every report you complete is a report less for the month and a lighter load for every day after.
Bottomline: You and how you intend to live your life.
saestremera@gmail.com