Breaking free...

The working life – the for and against arguments for this activity I’m pretty sure you’re all well versed with :) What makes me wonder is whether it is better to have a 9 to 5 job or a job that has unpredictable work hours.

With unpredictable jobs, you can’t really plan things in advance. But on the plus side, it’s great not having a set routine and not knowing what is going to happen any given day. I guess that’s partly why I like the medical scene; it’s exciting and you see/ hear/ learn something new nearly every day. On the other hand, with a 9 to 5 job you know it’s time to switch off at 5pm and your leisure time is from there on in until 9am the next morning. The downside would be that for someone like me it may get a little routine perhaps. Which is why during my histology/pathology placement, I have found myself quickly getting stuck into a fairly normal and predictable routine. Don’t get me wrong, I am really enjoying my time here as I have learnt a lot and there have been some interesting moments. Recently however, I have found myself clock watching, waiting for the day to end. I think during my undergrad I realised quite quickly that a routine 9 to 5 desk job would probably not suit me.

Thinking back to the start of my year, as I was the new girl, during my lunch hour I would spend my time getting to know other members of staff, catch up on reading or just have a wander around the grounds if the weather was particularly nice. Now that Abbey has left work (post wedding), I find myself getting slightly bored. I think part of me knows that my time here is slowly coming to end and I can sense that is it time to move on. This is partly because a) this was never meant to be a long term thing (but I treated it like one anyway) b) I feel I have learnt as much as I can from this place and c) I have set some things in motion (will explain later) which will hopefully work out and move my career forward (iA).

Anyway back to the issue of my wandering mind, seen as we only get 45 minutes to an hour for lunch (depending on how busy we were), what initially started off as curiosity has now quickly turned into a competitive game – with myself! Nowadays I get my lunch and I regularly venture out into the beautiful town of Harrogate. Pretty soon after my initial few visits, I started setting myself targets seeing how far I could stray from work and make it back in time. Maybe even take a couple of pictures if it was a particualrly nice place. Ok, it might sound a bit weird but I found it fun as it was nice meeting new people (and old – literally bumped into my microbiology lecturer Dr Harrington during lunch once) and I would say that the majority of Harrogate is pretty friendly and welcoming. There is this one rather standoffish lady in a local shop, but that’s a blog post for another time. I also discovered some beautiful new places in and around Harrogate and it really is a quite a scenic place.

I cannot explain how much I look forward to my lunch hour, it is a form of escapism – literally. I’m hoping I’m not alone, I mean people must do something to pass the time when they get bored. You never know there might be someone out there who probably plays exactly the same game as me during their lunch hour, lol. I think I should probably give this lunchtime activity a name. Any ideas?