Just two days into internship, and I'm already familiar with the biggest highlights of the day for all employees worldwide - Lunch break, and knock off time.
I'd love to be one of those people who can claim that work energises them, gives them a sense of purpose, adds colour, variety and a dash of spice to otherwise mundane lives, but who am I kidding. I grumble every morning when the alarm goes off 2 hours too early, I find myself sleeping on the train on the way to work, and before I step into the office I have to constantly remind myself that friday is coming.
I spend one hour before lunch thinking of what to eat for lunch, because there isn't any place remotely nice that I can eat at within the allotted time for lunch break. I have to listen to people complain about their lives when I'd honestly rather be somewhere else. I find myself going to the toilet way too often just to kill off a few more minutes because I have too many to kill anyway, and the coffee in the pantry sucks but nobody bothers to get a nicer instant coffeemix.
It's unseemly but I find that I'm quickly developing the lifeless pallor of people who have worked in an organisation for too long. You know, THAT LOOK. The look of "the best years of my life are behind me", "I'm working because I have too many bills to pay", "life is a drawn out long slog", with the light in the eyes long extinguished from endless hours of mindless drudgery.
You know what happens after you sit in that office for 20 odd years? You become Sumiko Tan.