Five Months Five months have passed since ground zero. They passed really fast. Those five months were full of changes, full of events, full of emotions. Five months ago I was a woman like many others: a jobless wife and mother of two who thought that the world would end unless she quickly finds another job to go on with her life as she knew and liked it. At that time, I thought that was the secret of happiness and of being accomplished. The time passed and the world didn’t end, at least not mine. Each month after ground zero brought something new to my life experience. I feel like a baby during his first months. I learned to walk again, to talk, to laugh and to cry, to live in a different world. I admit my life before ground zero was comfortable but only now I realize that I was losing myself. Daily routine slowly transformed me into a robot with excellent performances and practical abilities but with huge communication problems. I had no time for myself, for my family, for any hobby or passion. Now, things have changed. A new world, new people, new acquaintances and friends, a foreign language, new skills, new passions, even this blog is a result of my new experiences. What have I done in the meantime? I left and returned back home, I cried and laughed at the same time, I became more understanding and more tolerant, I did voluntary work, I started to notice and better understand my kids, I discovered new dishes and new tastes, I dedicated more time for studying and reading, I started drawing again and I started writing. In other words, I did exactly those things that I had no time for after eight or ten hours of exhausting daily work. This doesn’t mean that I don’t want to work anymore as I would have no time left for my passions or pleasures. I do but at the same time I want to have some time for those activities that bring so much joy in my life. One thing is clear and it took me a lot of time to realize it. We need a balance between personal, social and professional life and I hope by using my previous experience to manage setting new boundaries between them from now on.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 09:05:30 +0000