Sunday, November 23, 2014

Is the silver lining finally here?

I have been at my new job for almost a month now and in the course of that month my whole life has changed. I am not only a working individual, even enjoying the work I do, but I am also living in Africa, rebelling against oppression and dating an Egyptian guy, all scenarioas more ridiculous than the other. Throughout this entire year I was waiting for the moment when I thought that "the search" had ended and I finally found a purpose. Ever since I abandoned the PhD ambitions nothing seemed to even remotely make sense. Then I randomly moved to Egypt and nothing, genuinely nothing, is the way it was. Whoever has read this blog before will recall the posts in whichI asked the universe to change everything about my life, and for the first time in my life those prayers were heard. I am now trying to see if that was a good thing or not.

From a pretty early age my entire family believed I should be a journalist. Why that is the case remains a mystery to me because I only found out I was a good writer myself once I hit uni. However, as soon as I started writing I knew I was probably quite gifted. Most importantly, however, I actually enjoyed writing. Chances are that this is the true reason behind me wanting to do a PhD; so I could write all day. On the other hand, academic writing is so much harder than what I'm doing right now. I have written almost as many words as I have spoken in my life so it's not that hard for me. Hence, this job is awesome fun. I can write interesting stuff all day, but I can also write nonsense quite a lot. Either one, it's the only thing I really know how to do so it comes as no surprise I actually found myself a profession that lets me wrote all day.

Of course I'm not really what people believe I am saying I'm a journalist in Egypt. I don't go to Tahrir Square when I hear they are throwing tear gas bombs around. Instead, I am looking at this entire city from the office window, as far as smog visibility allows it, and think of things I could write that would entertain the people in it. Since I am one of these ridiculous list readers that browse the internet all day to find something to read that either makes sense or doesn't, I have fun at this job. I can't complain about the work environment either as the way people are trained, if you can call it that, is right up my street. Basically what happened was I showed up and someone said "Write!". Eventually someone said "Go to a meeting!" and then a little bit later someone said "Well done!" so I knew I wasn't ruining the company. Learning by doing got a whole new meaning around here.

The same time I've been working at my new job my boy of choice inhabited a flat to finally give us a chance to properly date. As I said before, dating in Egypt is a nighmare made in hell. As a matter of fact, calling it dating would be a horrible exaggeration. Due to my job environment being quite Western and my ability to hide out in my boyfriend's place this month I have now had an incredible time, just like every November (except last year!), in which it was easy to forget I actually do still live in a country I essentially find very, very annoying. This more that fulfilling month therefore has come as a much anticipated break to the utter crap I had to endure this year. I have waited for the moment I'm saying "I guess I see why all that had to happen!" for a long time and I feel I may be very close to feeling that way soon. If only it wasn't for missing Christmas and actually living in Egypt but I guess I can't have it all...

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