No Reason Really

Dear Nightwing,

It's 9:50 pm Wednesday night and I don't feel sleepy at all. There's a raging snowstorm outside, it's like watching a movie outside my window. Snow is dancing with the wind and coming down sideways. Secretly, I kinda like this weather because it reminds of back home during typhoons. I would lay awake in bed at night during those times listening to the branches of the mango tree being whipped by the storm and the rain hitting against the roof and my window panes.

I've never told you about what makes me love my work. I don't work to please anybody but myself. I don't work for recognition, nor do I work for a raise. I look at my paycheque as a lucky coincidence that someone actually gives me money for using my time and efforts wisely. Otherwise, what would I do? Sulk or be bored or simply deteriorate. I tackle work the same way I used to tackle word problems in algebra. It's a challenge. It's a question to be answered, and I never leave questions unanswered. Maybe if I viewed work differently, I would be a wealthy chick by now. Maybe I would have less problems and be of better use to those around me. But I would probably be miserable.

Do you see where I'm going with this? There was a time when I took my work so seriously and worried about losing my job and following rules and breaking rules and its consequences. It was also during that time that I suffered stress over office politics. Then one day I had my boss tell me that I don't have to like the people I work with. I don't go to work to have friends. He said I work because I believe in who I am and what the team can become because of me. I have become part of the word problem and if I did my part well, I become part of the solution.

I know it's too much to ask but I have to say that only in time do you master the task. Only in time does your work become like second nature. Every new workplace will have its quirks. The job may be the same but the characteristics are different here and there. When that time comes, you won't really care what others might say, be they your boss or HR. Because you do what you can, when you can and when you can't then you can't.

Meat-deprived baloney-talker,
Toronto Girl