I love my job. No really, I do. I don’t have that complete sense of satisfaction nor the feeling that this is what I will be doing for the rest of my life but I do feel the following:

• Empowerment – empowered to make decisions, to trust colleagues, giddy feeling of success and ownership
• Accomplishment – at the end of the day I don’t always feel a sense of completeness, hell, sometimes I feel as if I doubled my list of tasks when the “work day” ends. Yet, I do generally feel as if I have provided value each and everyday
• Respect – I disagree with colleagues, my boss, my clients but there is a common thread of respect throughout. There is so much value and opportunity driven through the ability to openly dialogue with team members on a subject and provide an opposing thought or perspective. I love and dread that moment of awakening when you hear a rationale objection to your point of view. That normal sentiment of, “oh yeah, why didn’t I think of that?”

A big aspect of my job involves travel. As a person who thrives on routine and structure I would argue that travelling on a constant basis wouldn’t be ideal. I find that the element that I struggle with the most when I travel is the constant sense of authority and being told what to do. I have provided a separate blog post to help fellow-travellers identify beneficial ways to make travel easier through programs and details on airport security.

Though none of these are my favorite things, I can handle the crying babies, early mornings, living out of a suitcase, unfamiliar surroundings, expense reports for days, hotel gyms, finding food I can eat, liquids in a bag and “did I remember my charger,” (I just checked my red backpack for this one in a moment of panic as I leave bright and early tomorrow morning). It’s the constant shepherding of taxi drivers questions, airport security, flight attendants with endless demands (tray tables, seats, bags, seatbelts, headphones, etc), and then building security, blah blah blah.

When you have a traditional workplace you may see a small portion of this but really there is a structure and you own your surroundings with little demands (unless you have a very demanding boss, client, etc and then well, that isn’t great either)!

My boyfriend and I just recently traveled together on a typical route I take for work and I could see that he finally got why I was so exhausted and so rebellious when I got home. Post-trip I find I revert back to a teenager mentality with the need to be completely independent and not adhere to any rules. I try to make sure that I find time for myself when I get back to my typical routine. It is important to identify the ways to make the transition easier in whatever way is best for you.