World Traveler

It made sense, working in soaps, to feel as though you were sometimes living in another world (pun, well, sort of intended!). After all, to tell the stories on a soap, you had to be at least somewhat invested in them. So, it would not be surprising to come home still thinking of people who didn't really exist, wanting to live in kitchens and living rooms larger than you would ever have and have adventures much larger than your own.

You would think that working in news would mean that you were firmly grounded in the same world as everyone else. What I have come to realize, however, particularly over this last bunch of months working overnight, is that feeling slightly other-worldly on your transitions between work and home can happen anywhere. These days, for me, it is reconciling a life that happens largely when others are asleep with the days when I actually join the rest of the world in the light. It is reconciling a deluge of news at work with a desire to escape from it at home. It is an ongoing endeavor to live fully in both worlds and to sleep enough to be able to do anything fully in either world.

Whether in soaps or in news, or truthfully, in any work that consumes our time and attention, we are called upon to live to the fullest in the world of our work and in the world of our home and family. The transitions can be hard, whether they involve managing hours or juggling emotions.  So, we do our best, to go from Viki's spacious kitchen to our own bowling alley shaped one. We do our best, to go from being coherent at work all night to being coherent all day to be an effective and involved parent. And somehow, we manage the travel, and a very particular kind of "jet lag." It is, I guess, how the world turns (yes, pun intended!).