- When I travel, I am much more diligent about safety. I refuse to ride the elevator with men I do not know. If I do end up in that situation, I get off the elevator and go the wrong way on purpose, or stop to check my phone, or do something else so that said strange man/men will not see where my room is. If I am walking across a dark parking lot I will take off my laptop bag and carry it in my hand, because I have actually thought about using it for self defense/ditching it and running if necessary. I also drive very very cautiously, which I try to do all the time, but is much harder to do when you are on your regular paths at home.
- When I travel I notice that it is very easy to become selfish. I always tend toward selfisness, but at home there is a dog to be cared for, a husband to feed, and co-workers to get to know and empathize with. On the road I interact with people, but rarely anyone I actually know. Even when I do see people, my interactions with them are brief. Admissions counselors actually spend the large part of their time alone, driving, eating, staying in hotels, and working on computers in coffee shops. I can do this all on my own time without regard to anyone else's feelings, and that is something you don't experience when you have parents and siblings and roommates and husbands and dogs around you all the time. (I should point out that the closest I have ever come to living alone was 4 months renting a room in Seattle before I got married . . . I lived with a woman and her son and 2 other renters, but didn't know any of them well, and I was never there. You have probably lived alone before and think I am a total wimp for feeling like it's strange. That is valid.) I provide all of that background in order to say that I often end up acting selfishly and thinking self-centered thoughts when I am traveling. I say strange things to baristas and high school counselors. I am cold and detached with grocery store check-out clerks. This past week I have been remembering to pray more for the people I interact with, and it has really been helping. I have especially been praying before I go into high schools and talk with staff and students, and I love the way God reminds me to empathize and care and ask questions about their lives. It's only a few hours a day, but it makes a big difference!
- When I travel my diet is completely different. One of the perks of traveling for work is that food is paid for. I am hugely grateful for this because I usually have no place to prepare meals, and prepared food is way more expensive than raw ingredients. I am also grateful because I loooove food, and on the road I have a chance to buy and eat things I only dream of the rest of the year: Red Robin teriyaki chicken burgers (I have had 3 this fall), Whole Food soups (my lunch almost every day), all kinds of Chinese/Korean/Thai take-out (Travis is not a big fan, so I don't make much of these foods at home), and wildly delicious Odwalla juices. As you may expect, this altered diet makes my stomach feel totally strange all the time. It is also worth it. I have been able to go almost two months so far without anything that strictly qualifies as fast food (unless you include things like Chipotle burritos, which I do not, since I can't have any of the ingredients that make a burrito unhealthy), but that does not mean my body is happy with my choices.
- When I travel, I talk to Travis about 15 minutes a day. This is a huge change from when I am home, and we spend a lot of evening and weekend time together. I shared this with a friend who thought it was strange we talked so little, but there is really not much to say after a few weeks. Most of my days are similar and uneventful (this is a very good thing!), and it only takes a few minutes to tell the occasional funny story about a student at a college fair. Travis is in school full-time and ridiculously busy with studying. Our marriage is healthy and happy as ever, and I love our time together on the weekends, but we have both always been comfortable spending time doing our own things. I love this about us, and I know that it has been God's gift during this season of being apart so much. I do believe that we were designed by God for each other, and that we were designed as a married couple to handle the unique challenges of my job.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
My double life
This afternoon I am taking a break from reviewing applications to blog. I am traveling again this week (just a few more weeks to go!), and I have been thinking a lot about how strange it is to travel around by yourself all the time. Here a few things that are different about my life on the road:
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