The Freelancer's Jetlag

Yes, there is such a thing as a freelancer's jetlag, so did I discover.

The absence of fixed daily timed schedules makes the freelancer's zone
inversely proportional to the regular employee's 8-hour job cycle.

A 5-month freedom from the working grind, not necessarily to mean
I never worked during this period, causes a floating state
the moment I went back to the time-in, time-out world
of corporate days.

To fill the hours sitting down, or staying still in a designated working area,
aside from the transformed body clock requires
adjustment to a previous working state I've been
in for more than two decades.

But what's two weeks, my current temporary assignment
to two decades? I thought it will be easy.

I miss typing work from my bed, with the television on.
Any moment, when thinking comes to a halt, I can simply
close my eyes and take a nap.

Goodbye to slow mornings and lazy beginnings.
There's a fixed time to start, around 930 am.
So there's no time to gradually wake up
and separate my head from my pillow.

The upside is, I am surrounded by familiar
and new faces. I get to talk with someone more,
rather than working alone and talking to myself
as if I was Gollum.

It's like being tipsy the whole day, when I started
this fixed working weeks.

But I feel too hyper, compared to anyone else,
raring to go to a boardroom meeting,
and project briefings, which used to be my pet peeve
when I was as regular an employee as anybody else.
It's as if I am always on a caffeine high.

Also, I get to wear shirts again, which has almost
been gathering dust for lack of meetings to go to.

In two weeks, I seem to wear something new,
but they're old stuff kept in jobless, meeting-free hiding.

I feel like being released from solitary confinement
in a prison.

The absence of work makes me appreciate the presence of it.
For now, it doesn't feel like a burden, but a new toy to play with.

Like jetlag, I wonder how long this will last before
work becomes like a normal state again.

Work, at least for now, feels like a break,
after taking a long break from work.
While a break, feels like drudgery.

To others, what I am doing now may be
too much of the same old thing, ah, here
we go again, another day of working.

For me, it's like rediscovering a long lost friend.
Men are so attached to their jobs, right?
But like riding a bike, once you've learned it once,
there's no way to forget how to pedal for motion.

At least, I haven't done overtime yet, hopefully not.
Now that, for a freelancer, is a big adjustment.
Knock on wood, it doesn't happen during
this fortnight assignment.

The balance of life and work brought about the freelancing option.
You choose when to work and when to stop working.

Yes, I'm working now, excitedly declaring it.
Two weeks may be enough or make me feel wanting.
But it's a welcome change of pace, and milieu.

I am enjoying my vacation, ironic as it may sound, by working.

Now I can't wait to go to the shower,
choose work shirts to wear,
and yes, get to the office on time.

Darn, it's Friday already? I am just gaining my momentum!
Hmmm, I missed that too, unwinding after a long week's work.
Cheers!