Last week was essentially my first week of meeting people for my project full-time. My plan was to use my company’s office as my home base where I could drop off my belongings, go out and meet people, and return to answer emails, direct messages, etc. On Tuesday (6/28), however, I met with our head of HR, and after talking through the logistics of my work situation (I’ll expand on this at a later date), we decided that it made the most sense for me to stop coming in to the office.
Not having that safe haven to return to each day made the journey of going out and exploring this project full-time a lot more real. I started to think about things like where I can hop on free wifi to answer emails, how I would feed myself during the day (my company usually had groceries stocked), and what I should start carrying in my backpack. The mental exercise reminded me of my time in Europe with my sister. We had taken a 12-day trip to Europe prior to me starting my first job with Deloitte and found ourselves wondering the same things I thought this past Tuesday.
So Wednesday morning, I woke up, packed my laptop, a book, and a sandwich-sized Ziploc bag of trail mix along with a couple of protein bars, and ventured out into the city. In between my first and second meetings I had 2 hours to kill so I stopped into HubBub Coffee in University City to use the wifi and answer emails. Back when I would go into the office, I basically had two homes in the city – my residence and my work space. Having to Google coffee shops in the area to kill time at made me realize that I only have one home now, and made me feel a lot like a tourist in my own city.
I became even more aware of these feelings on Thursday. This time I packed a water bottle along with my selfie-stick, which I knew would eventually come in handy. I explored abandoned areas like the Reading Viaduct and relaxed in others like Logan Square. Once I got to Logan Square, I had run out of water and thought to myself, “Where do I find a water fountain in this city?” Again, questions that usually arise on tourist trips. I couldn’t find one and eventually stopped into City Tap House where the hostess was kind enough to fill my water bottle at the bar.
In one week of doing this full-time, I’ve come to realize that I will be a tourist throughout this project. Each day, I’ll be traveling around experiencing new places with new people and using the city as my new office. It felt alienating at first, but I now know how luck I am to have that opportunity and look forward my many days of exploration ahead!
Until next time!
Rob
