Some friends of mine think that I am such a workaholic. For some people the word Workaholic refers to something negative, meaning that people who work too much tend to forget their personal life, forget to have fun, forget about everything. To my defense, I am not one of those workaholics. Let’s just say that I’m a workalover.
My working hour is 07 am to 3.45 pm. I have 12-15 days off in a year, which I can only take during school holiday. School holiday schedule varied to every school in this country, and since I’m working in a German school in Indonesia, so my school holiday is a little bit different than any other school. Our school holiday based on German’s shool holiday, that’s why we have many school holidays in a year, starting from early-year holiday (1 week), easter holiday (around 2 weeks), summer holiday (8-10 weeks), autumn holiday (around 2 weeks), christmas holiday (around 3 weeks), in total we have around 16-18 weeks of holiday in one year, that makes around 112-126 days of holiday in a year. Bear in mind that these holidays only apply to students and teachers. I am neither both.
When the school is on holiday, I’m still on work. I don’t mind to it, in fact I’m enjoying the quietness around the school. I can actually listen to music or listen to radio stream only during the holiday. Loads of work would normally less than any school days, so yes I have many free time to browse the internet. But no..i don’t do update social-media thingy or chat for hours. Internet during school holiday can sometimes be very boring.
When my other colleagues are away taking their days off, I’m still on work. When they’re back from holiday, I’m actually advised to take my days off. But no, I’m still on work. I’d say… business as usual! They say I work like crazy, not giving enough room for myself to have fun, not giving some days off to have fun, not spending money to have fun. But to tell you the truth, I do have time for myself, I do spend my days off for myself, and I do spend money to have fun for my own satisfaction. It’s HOW I do it that perhaps many people don’t know or don’t understand.
I’m very thankful for my place of work right now. I don’t have to be stuck in traffic jam, or even if I do get stuck, I would just go and walk to get to my bus. It’s usually one of my way to remind myself that at least I spend enough calories to walk after sitting for 8-9 hours in the school. Without the traffic jam, it allows me to be home early, take a shower, sip a cup of coffee, read books, talk around 1 or 2 hours with my sister and brother before I go to sleep. Those are the things that I call having fun and giving room for myself. I spend money to have fun by saving it a little for my plan to enroll german course in another term, by spending a little for my niece, by paying my insurance and my niece’s education insurance, by going to the cinema (if there’s any good movie to watch) once in a month, by going out once in two weeks eating my favorite noodle with my best friend over the weekend.
I personally don’t have to explain all of those activities of what I do to make myself happy to people who think that I work like crazy. I work because I like it. How I work and how I live may be different than you, but if you see how content and calm I am with my life now and above all…how I can accept my life the way it is now, wouldn’t you be happy with me as well?
Jakarta, 29.01.12
