It is truly amazing to me how quickly we adapt to new situations. Even if we gripe about the specifics, we tend to become so immersed in the new, that it's almost as if the old never happened.
Seven months ago, I was smack in the middle of the NYC school bus strike, creating carpool arrangements to make sure my children got to and from school. Just months later, I was working in Connecticut, taking a train early every morning, completely incapable of filling in bus strike gaps. And it was almost as if the bus strike and all that went with it had never happened.
Last summer, I was writing preschool stories in what now seems like another lifetime. Was I good at it? Hard to say, and also hard to believe that it really happened, since life now is so different.
I am a firm believer in accountability, not blame, but accountability. If something happened, it affects things that are happening now. So, whether it's hard now to remember being out of work or it's hard a year from now to remember going to Connecticut every day, each of these experiences is part of the others. We can say that we've moved forward from our past history, but without acknowledging and remembering that history, we can't really move forward. And maybe that's one of the good things about a blog--it doesn't let you forget--at least not without thinking things through first. So, as sure as my Connecticut train ticket and my ABC ID live in my bag, these and my other experiences in this adventure called work will remain active parts of my history. The non-revisionist version.
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