Just Like Real Life

Posted in Digital Nomads

just_like_real_life

I wouldn’t say I have a love/hate relationship with my job. It is probably more of a like/dislike relationship. On the likes, the commute time is great, the television industry is fairly interesting and for the most part I work with smart and personable people (there are exceptions, but there always are). On the dislike half of the equation, the role can be tedious, the vacation policy is pathetic for someone who’s been working in corporate America for years and biggest of them all, I hate the lack of freedom. The freedom to work wherever I want – to be un-tethered from my cubicle.

Firemen, doctors, janitors? Yes, those jobs require you to be at a specific work location. But Project Manager? Nah – that requires a laptop an internet connection and a power source. All things I have in my home or on the road.

Yet, with a few exceptions, company policy is you work from your assigned desk. Sigh.

I have been lucky enough to arrange a few days where I could work from home (or from the airport) but those days are not frequent and I feel a certain amount of stress asking for them.

Recently, I did get to leave my cubicle for two days to attend the Cable Show – an international convention focused on the cable television industry.

There were key note speakers, industry workshops, wheeling and dealing executives and fancy corporate booths with everything from cutting edge TVs to bars with free flowing beer.

During one workshop I chose to attend, the presenter spoke excitedly about the new Ultra HD/4K television screens that bring brighter, higher-quality television images into your home than you’ve ever seen before. To demonstrate the increased color and image quality, the televisions on display scrolled through images of some iconic and picturesque locations from around the world.

The quality of images was pretty amazing, but after watching a few of the landscape, beach and city skyline shots scroll by I started to tick off in my mind the places I had actually seen up close and personal rather than on a television screen.

How much more those places meant to me because I had smelled the air or dipped my toes in the water or met someone interesting along they way to get there.

At one point the presenter made a comment that images like the ones we were seeing on the television screen were as close to real life as you could get and you’d never have to get off of your couch.

Technologically that was quite an accomplishment, but for me that notion was both sad and scary.

The idea of staying on the couch rather than getting out to see the world? Nah! I knew this presenter was not speaking my language, so I tuned out and started thinking about what beautiful part of this world I wanted to see next…in real life.

YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
0 comments… add one

Leave a Comment

CommentLuv badge