Sometime it is difficult to see the forest for the trees. And when you’ve been working an incredibly busy and sometimes stressful job that includes hosting high-ranking dignitaries; where the possibility of being evacuated from your home for security reasons is openly discussed for over a year. With hardly a break. It does catch up with you, I guess.
I recently took on a new portfolio at work that may have been affecting me in ways I didn’t realize. I’m responsible for housing for over 320 families. Many of them have never lived overseas...much less in the Middle East...and sometimes don’t quite understand that things don’t quite work the same way as they do in the States.
I think it would take a toll on anyone if a large part of your job was fielding complaints from people who are also stressed out for reasons that may have nothing to do with their leaking shower. I confided to a colleague that my psychology education may come in good use because I recognize more often than not, a complaint about housing is a symptom of a greater malady that likely has nothing to do with one’s housing.
Elise says I’m perfectly suited for the job, and I do legitimately like helping people. I feel personally responsible for their happiness while having to realize at the same time there may be nothing I can do to make them happy.
The last few weeks of summer were hard, but Elise reminded me the last few weeks of summer are always hard. Now; that the summer is coming to an end, I can recognize it for what it was an era: a period that is passing. The kids will look back fondly on this summer, and for Elise and I too memories of hardship will fade, as well.
It doesn’t mean I’m above sending the kids off to summer camp next summer.
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