I've often recalled what it is like to work a nine to five job where one is incarcerated in an office all day long, manacled to a keyboard and a near constant focus on the computer screen. Whist I was pedalling my way into work at nine in the morning I was casting my eye around the morning commute unfolding around me. I caught a glimpse of a man pushing through the door into the reception of a fairly standard office building. It occurred to me that he would most likely be in there, sitting at his desk for the next eight hours and his mind delving into the complexities of e-mails, spreadsheets, reports, ad infinitum. It suddenly struck me that spending eight or nine hours in the same building, on the same chair, with the same people and the same computer for eight hours a day for five days a week must be incredibly frustrating.
I once had a normal nine to five role; turn up, sit down, switch on computer and a life wasting wait for five pm to come round and yet there was life going on outside; fresh air, clouds racing across the sky, trees swaying in the wind, busy roads and busy motorways and yet all this is lacking in the conventional office. There is the gentle hum of the desktop fans, the flickering glare of a monitor, stale air, the faint hint of brewed coffee, photocopier fumes, phones ringing, gossip, false pleasantries and so forth. It was like a straight jacket as all that I wanted was beyond the double glazed façade of the office building and thus beyond reach for eight precious hours of life.
Thankfully, I have now found my freedom through pure chance and am where I want to be and how I want to be and it has taken a very long time. On my way into work I breathe the fresh air, watch the clouds chasing across the sky and watch how the wind moves through the trees and so the life that I once yearned for is now with me. I cycle into work and vary my commute through the rural and pleasant surrounds of the local university, I look at the clouds chasing across the sky and refresh myself with the sensation of the wind in my face and it is the perfect way to start the day. I may take a detour or two as whether I am ten minutes early or twenty minutes late has absolutely no bearing on what I do or how I do it. Yes, I am office based but for only so much of my time. I have appointments to keep and places to be and all of them require the use of my bike and thus the refreshment of the wind, the excitement of not quite knowing what to expect on my journey and being on my own in my own little world whilst the world on four wheels speeds past me.
By four in the afternoon, I am usually finished and I pedal my way back home through the fresh air, the trees swaying in the wind and the bird song of the late afternoon. It's a good life and a life that I did not choose but chose me instead. I don't earn a great wage and yet I could if I had chosen the route of a lawyer, an accountant, a software engineer and the many other hundreds of jobs that involve the gentle hum of the desktop fans, the flickering glare of a monitor, stale air and the faint hint of brewed coffee. If I had chosen this route, I may even have had my own house by now, a pension, a nice car and decent holidays. I do not have any of these, but one thing I do possess is my freedom and that doesn't come cheap and nor does the rest.
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