Put on your dancing shoes

I decided to take off my work stilettos and put on my dancing shoes for a little while. I quit my job and am taking a few months off before sailing away for my next adventure. I cannot believe that I haven’t had time like this forever! My life went from <Work, work, work><Sleep><Run a household> to <Insert anything you like><Sleep all you want>< Run a household>. “Anything you like” !

When I mentioned this to my friends and colleagues there was a feeling of contentment in them as if they always wanted to do exactly this and are happy seeing their reflection in someone else. I am hoping my journal here will make it easy for us as a society to accept that “All Work and No Play Makes Jill a dull girl!”

It was not an easy decision. I loved everything about my job, and taking a break seemed like an unopened puzzle. I have seen many instances where a break in the career is frowned upon, especially for women. There are organizations helping women build back their careers after a hiatus. I knew all about this but there was a calling in my head that I could not ignore. I decided to listen to my inner self this time. Anyway, I consider myself extremely fortunate to have this luxury for a short while .

So, now that I am on the other side, it feels uncomfortable, stress-free, and guilt-ridden — for some days I don’t even feel like I achieved much. Being a workaholic, I seem to enjoy the packed schedule days the most. That said, I have been able to spend time on something that I neglected this far — relationships. I met with many friends for coffee / lunch just to hang out. I have had long phone conversations with my family members. All this, without a single nag or cry from a child near me, for hours! Imagine that! The feeling that you have with deep personal interaction is priceless.

Being a stay at home parent is the hardest job ever. An average American parent spends 3 hours on their child/home (drop offs, pick-ups, cooking, chores). I feel like I spend more like 5, need to work on it. The pick-ups and drop offs are like bookends to my fun time. You can pretty much fill in your day with chores for a young family like ours. Thank God, I have a husband warning system when I start doing that.

I have enjoyed some aspects of my time off a lot. I took an entire morning to sit in a library to learn about topics completely orthogonal to my life — Sustainable engineering, modern architecture etc. I took my son rock climbing (he hated it ;).

Yet, my hands were itching for some troubleshooting and problem solving. Serendipitously our garage door stopped working. So, we opened up the sensors and got it move half way through! Ok, that was a disaster - I thought I figured out something but no good happens when you mix red and black wires together…

So all in all, I am getting the hang of it. Feels powerful to have time in my hands! Watch this space for all the fun, and pain, one can have during a break! Pour in with your suggestions too… both for time “management” and suggestions for a future gig!