At the day job, we’re in the middle of a university sanctioned office rehab (new paint, carpet, windows), and every office around me was being painted as I patiently waited my turn. I sorted and tossed and packed and re-arranged and moved and transferred and packed and lifted and packed and attempted to do my job despite the disruptions.
Finally, it was my office’s turn. I walked into work and ran headlong into the owner of the painting company.
Painting Guy: Your office is falling apart.
Me: What?
PG: Your wall. The plaster fell off in rather large chunks.
The fear of getting trapped in a conversation with him outweighed my desire to know more about what exactly was happening in my office. Plus, his very calm demeanor allowed me to swallow my fear that I’d been working in a death trap. I left them to their devices and hurried to my coworker-on-vacation’s office where I’d be stationed for the next two days.
When they’d finished for the day and I was able to peek into my office, I saw about one third of the wall had been re-plastered and my desire to rearrange my office so I wouldn’t be sitting next to that wall anymore raged. As I contemplated new positions for my desk and cabinets, I remembered what the painter boss man had said during an earlier conversation. (Have I mentioned he’s chatty?)
PG: Success is personal. It’s all in how you define it. No one else cares. As long as you’re comfortable within your means, nothing else matters.
Granted that had nothing to do with interior decorating or safety protocol, but it was really good advice. Especially since he’s such a world traveler (Italy, Belize, all over the US, Germany, England, Australia, scuba diving, skiing, visiting…) and that got me pondering my next international trip, all of which is to say, he took my mind away from the negative (the crumbling but now patched office walls + how will I redecorate when I have no sense of these things + what will I do when I own a home + when will I ever own a home + will it be in a good location or in the middle of nowhere and no one will visit me because it’s too far away, etc.) and fastened it on the inquisitive (what is my exact definition of success) and the positive (a list of the successes I have had so far in this unconventional version of adulthood I’m living.)
Abigail Mumford 