Americans get kinda schmaltzy and saccharine this time of year (i.e. Thanksgiving). A British person’s “I’m fine, thanks” is equivalent to an American’s “I’m doing fan-TAS-tic!” and I think I came to the USA too late in life to adjust. Still, I want to highlight some of the things I am thankful for, since it’s been a long year.
- Home territory
An introvert’s home is their fortress. The primal Safe Space. Of course we go out into the world and socialise, but that’s only because we’re secure in the knowledge that our home (AKA our recharging point) is waiting for us when we need a break. That’s why it’s important I live in my own apartment (no roommates), and it’s a space I enjoy spending time in. Back when I was a coffeeshop hobo I wasted hours in coffeeshops because it was preferable to spending time on that depressing council estate in a run-down apartment I shared with 2 shift workers (Note: you couldn’t have found 3 people with less overlap in their working hours. I was out the door at 5am, the roomie who guarded the nearby construction site didn’t get home until 7am, and by the time I got home at 4pm the third roommate had left for his afternoon/evening work. That was one of my favourite roommate set-up).
I live in a good place, one that stabilises the rest of my life.
- Doing work relevant to my PhD
I hoped I’d never regret my Chemistry PhD. You sink 5 years of your life into obtaining that one qualification, often denting your health & wellbeing in the process. During grad school you constantly ask yourself, if the PhD is worth it. Could you have spent those 5 years doing something else and getting to the same place career-wise (if not better)?
That’s one of the reasons I like being a healthcare copywriter. You don’t need a PhD to be one..but it helps. Recruiters and hiring managers see it as beneficial (“you have a strong technical background”), which in a way is even nicer than seeing it as a requirement. I get to live out my fantasies of being a science generalist, taking on new challenges and absorbing whatever interesting snippets of science/medicine I come across.
- Books
I come from a book-ish family. The only rooms in the house without full bookshelves are the second bathroom and laundry room. I’m surprised when I see inside other people’s homes and they use bookshelf space for displaying photographs and ornaments. Or — to my great alarm — they put books on the shelves but then place ornaments in front of the books, declaring that the likelihood of them randomly pulling down a book to leaf through is close to nil.
It’s hard to amass books when you’re transient. Where can I put them in shared apartments? Buying books seems reckless when you know you’re going to have to move in the next couple of years, paying a moving company for each kilogram they shift. My Target-value shelves broke in transit, so I piled them on my bedroom floor.
But there is redemption! I’m within walking distance of a library. First time in a long time. I didn’t realise how hungry I was for the written word until I started returning from the library with 5 borrowed books at a time. The more books I borrowed, the more I needed. Books about commercial archeology, Jack the Ripper’s victims, the evolution of Christianity: why wouldn’t I take them home with me? I may be going to bed earlier and earlier, but because I’m getting a few hours reading in, my life feels more rich and expansive.
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