There
was no escaping that the title of this blog post was going to be a reference to
either an egotistical cliché, “A Day in the Life of” or a song, “A Day,” by Clan of Xymox.
Since
one of the purposes of this blog is to provide a little snapshot of the lives
of fellows, I figured I’d go through my day.
As I noticed—and as the presenters addressed—at the first D.C. Project
55 seminar on “Careers in Non-Profits,” the narrative distance of a panel or
blog makes one’s life look a lot more seamless than it actually is.
To
the Princeton student who’s reading this, I begin like Maimonides in his
epistolary introduction to The Guide of
the Perplexed, “this is for you and others like you.”
Disclaimers
made, let’s go into granular detail. On
weekdays, I wake up a bit after four and do my morning pages. I followed Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way before beginning at
Princeton and I wrote my thesis on
her program and other creative recovery programs. I meditate and then go exercise in the
fitness center in the townhouse development where my aunt and uncle live. I live with them for a few reasons: my uncle
offered me a deal on rent I can’t refuse, my car insurance is cheaper in Virginia
than in the Capital (et tu, The Hunger Games?), and I’ve always
lived with family during summers and for internships and whatnot. I return home, shower, dress, drink my green
juice, eat my oatmeal, and my uncle drops me off at a metro station on his way
to work.
I
start work at 07:30. Besides entering
information into Character Education Partnership’s development database, I
sometimes design cards, make phone calls to encourage schools, business, and
others to attend CEP’s National Forum on Character Education, compile and send
thank-you notes, execute fundraising research, and sort accounting files. I leave the office to eat lunch since I don’t
believe in eating where you work. There’s
a more vulgar way to say that, but I’ll leave it to your imagination. I drink 4/7 of my lunch since I cannot chew
all I need to sustain myself in 30 minutes (juicing…that’s why my parents gave
me a high-speed blender as a graduation present).
Once
a week CEP gathers for a staff meeting, and I attend other meetings as the need
arises. I currently take notes for the
fundraising committee meetings since I will be doing quite a bit of data entry
as the new director of development writes a new fundraising plan. Working with a supervisor who telecommutes
from across the country is probably not for everyone; I get along very well
with her, which means we communicate clearly.
As one of my coworkers said this week, a “certain synergy” comes from
working in an office with fellow humans.
Sabrina is right on in her observations about forced face time not
really being downtime. Adjectives fail
me to describe how much I dislike staring at a computer all day.
I
metro back to Alexandria and walk home.
Sometimes I have to feed my aunt and uncle’s two cats. I eat supper, which is usually a portion of a
dish I made on the weekend. I assemble
the juices and grains for the next day.
I take a walk around Alexandria, and then I come home, pick out the next
day’s clothes, shower, read a little sacred text, and go to bed hopefully before
21:00.
Wash,
rinse, repeat. One of my weekend days
involves cooking whatever I find at the Alexandria farmers’ market, and one of
my weekend days involves going to church.
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