Summertime...And the Living's EasyIn a couple of weeks, I'll have lived in this condo longer than I've lived anywhere in 8 years. I'm not that much of a gypsy at heart. It just happened that way. During college, I lived somewhere new every summer and went back to a different apartment during the school year.
Summer internships were fabulous. You got to move somewhere for several months and essentially live a new life. There were exciting new friends and coworkers, an interesting and novel job and usually a beautiful new location. No one knew you. You had a fresh start every summer.
During my internships, I'd take long weekend trips. We'd sometimes drive for 8 hours one way and back...just for the hell of it. There didn't have to be a plan for the weekend, we'd just explore somewhere new. I got to learn all the nooks and crannies of whatever town I'd moved to. You might be light on sleep, but it didn't matter because you were having fun. And it really didn't hurt your work life.
Speaking of the work life, even when it was bad, it wasn't too bad. You knew what you were there for. You were there to build your resume, to get experience, to try something new and to determine what you were going to do later. You also knew that you could leave in a couple of months, so what did it matter?
And the summer flings. Remember the summer flings? You went after anyone you wanted to because, hey, what's the worst thing that could happen? Even if it went horribly wrong, it's just the summer. It won't ruin the world.
I think that we should live our lives like we are on summer internships. I realize that this is a recycled version of "Live every day like it's your last." The difference is, my slogan is less depressing.
Internships are different than "real life," you say. It's true, they are. I haven't just, say, gone to Canada on a weekend, purely for the sake of a trip in "real life." But why haven't I? There's nothing stopping me from going. People just aren't spontaneous in "real life." They have to stay home, repaint the living room. They have to work.
People
hate their jobs. We hated internships a time or two, but we knew that we could leave them. If you hate your job...leave it! What is keeping you there? We are young, we have plenty of time to realize what it is that we want and to move in that direction. If you feel tied down by your degree, get a new one. Or, find a different career within that umbrella. It's permissible, lots of people do it. These days, hardly anyone stays at a job, or even an industry for their working life. Why do we feel that we are tied to a decision that is bad to us? Why do we stay in abusive working relationships? Often, it's because we have other responsibilities--one of which is a mortgage.
This brings me to the home. Home is super. It's where the heart is. But people are so damn tied to a box that they live in. I adore my condo. I could move out of it tomorrow. Well, I'd have to pack a lot. But I could leave these walls, no matter how much I like them. A mortgage isn't this magical binding device. You can rent out your house, you can sell it. The only thing that keeps you there is a) fear of leaving or b) you don't really want to leave. Those are the only two reasons that people actually stay at their home. Back in internship days, we lived in apartments and even had roommates. I'm not a fan of roomies, but sometimes they're worth it. Our homes have become another version of golden handcuffs.
You might argue that we can't treat everything like an internship because they are just a few months in duration. While it's true that you need a plan, I don't see any problem with living your day to day in the internship fashion. Really, most events aren't nearly as earth-shattering as we make them out to be.
In a tarot deck, the card for change is usually Death. We look at change like that. We fear it wholeheartedly. Many times there isn't a reason to have that fear. I've had friends who went to college and hated their major. So, they went back to school. I know people who hated their job, they got a new one. These have been positive changes. I know several guys who moved across the country for different reasons. The reasons went away, but they have made a life for themselves despite it. A couple years ago, 3 of my friends went through horrible breakups. The kind where they thought that they might be broken forever. Now, they're doing fine. There are scars. They might still wince when thinking of the past, but they've moved on. Most of the horrible events that we fear are not that horrible.
When we were doing internships, these things weren't really issues. Our lives were made of change. We knew that our careers were still being composed and we knew that relationships were complicated but fun. We have to grow up sometime. But a switch didn't just flip between graduation and now. And we don't immediately change into what we will be. It's a lifelong process.
Back in internship days, we were free, we had fun and our futures were whatever we wanted to make of them.
They still are.