Leaving the Grind Behind
Approximately 20 days after leaving my sales position, I think I have regained my perspective or I am starting to. As I dropped my friend at work downtown this morning, I studied all the people on the street while at the red light. Each and every person I viewed appeared worn, hurried and unaware of their surroundings.
One young girl looked bothered that her Blackberry went off again but it didn’t stop her from pulling it out of her coat pocket and reading the message. She didn’t even take the time to look up as she crossed the street. There could have been money dropping from the 16th floor of the closest building and she would have missed the cash grab. Then later at happy hour cursing herself for letting “Bob’s” message distract her from the $300 she could have pocketed. ‘I would have bought the whole group a drink’ she reveals while taking a sip.
There was one woman who appeared to have sat in the same chair for too many hours a day for too many years. She had tired brown slacks on. They must have steadily gotten shorter as her midsection grew because they no longer reached the top of her shoes. No reason to replace them if the elastic waistband allowed for the new body shape and still matched the two sweaters she had gotten for herself from Chadwick’s. She probably didn’t even notice that 10 years had passed.
The three fresh out of college’s with their brand new knee length wool coats had a false sense of identity and purpose. So ready to take on the day. I thought that they might have very different faces if the street they were walking on was just 6 blocks up by the division of Job and Family Services office. Possibly holding their laptop cases just a bit closer to their core, eyes focusing on the sidewalk instead of closed under the shade of their Starbucks lid.
I believe that I am slowly shedding that old skin if I am even able to think of all of them as differents. I relish that my first thought wasn’t that I should smile, just in case they were a customer. I am thrilled that I even took the time to sit down a write a little bit this morning. I will try and continue this tomorrow after I drop my friend off again. I would prefer to keep it at this level of studying for now because once I move on I will have to start studying myself and figuring out who I should be next.