Friends In Real Life

Last week my company had our annual summer outing. Every year, one day in June, we climb into rented buses and are driven out to Concord for an afternoon of a catered lunch, games, and mingling. If we're lucky, there's sunshine. And because it wouldn't be a job in publishing without alcohol, there is an open bar.

To say my workload has been heavy as of late would be an understatement. The summer outing is always optional and this year there was a irritating little voice in my head suggesting I skip the event to get some uninterrupted work done at the office. There was a massive project on deadline, I was still playing catch-up on emails and to-dos after Ireland, not to mention the other million and one projects that could have occupied my afternoon. The thing is though, the work will always be there. There will always be another meeting to prepare for, another report to run, another extremely! urgent! hurry up! email to answer, another project that was due yesterday.

I suppose, if I was ever caught up, I'd be bored. Or worried about job security.

There have been a few jobs in my life that I detested. If I think about some of those positions for more than a few minutes at a time, I can quickly conjure up the dread I'd feel heading to my desk, the doom of another boring day sitting like lead in my stomach. I know what it's like to sit at a desk, bored silly for nine hours, just as I know how it feels to not have a single co-worker whom I'm friendly with. There are few things more depressing then not having anyone to sit with during a company wide meeting or not knowing anyone to make a quick coffee run with or heading down to lunch alone day after day after day. If you've ever been there, you know what I'm talking about. It's a miserable situation any which way you slice it.

So last week, as I mingled with my little clique of co-workers over our afternoon of food, drinks, and games, I had to smile. And offer up a quick prayer of gratitude. I'm lucky enough to now work with some of my dearest friends, people I cannot imagine not seeing on a near daily basis. They are people I can count on to roll their eyes along with me over typical work frustrations, they're almost always up for a post-work beer when a stressful day calls for it. They make me laugh, sometimes so much that I end up crying. In short, they are people I really, genuinely like. There was a time, at some of those older jobs when I might have turned down a summer outing invitation just because I knew I'd have no one to talk to all afternoon. So when that nagging internal voice told me I should stay in front of my computer and pull publication schedules? I politely told her to take a very long walk off a short pier.

My friends were waiting.