With registration Monday morning, I have been forced to sit down and think about next year. For most of this semester I have been so caught up in what I am doing and enjoying my present experience in New York City that I have hardly stopped to appreciate how this differs from my life at Hamilton to which I will soon return.
Obviously I noticed the difference in my daily schedule this semester versus that at school. Here I wake up at 4:30 in the morning and have a 30-minute commute to work each day. I have no breaks, not even a lunch break, and do not return home until 6 o'clock in the evening. At Hamilton I have control over my schedule: when I begin my day, how many breaks I have, and when I do my work as long as I meet the deadlines I am given by my professors.
Here in New York, working for a large investment bank with thousands of employees, I am told when I will do all of these things. There is little flexibility in my schedule. At 6 a.m. I report to work. I spend the next 12 hours completing assignments I have, both short and long term. However, at 6 o'clock each evening, I put down my work and leave. After exiting the building, I cannot work on any assignments. This is a stark contrast to my life as a student at Hamilton. In that environment, I make my own work schedule. My professors give me assignments and I have the option of working on them weeks before the due date or of pulling an all-nighter in order to meet the deadline. At Lehman Brothers, I do not have the luxury of putting off assignments until I focus or am struck with the desire to be productive.
This has taken some adjusting, but I am finally settling into this new structured work schedule. I have come to enjoy the freedom that this rigid work schedule has provided me. When I leave work, my evenings are free. I do not have that feeling that more can be done or that I should be in the library working on another assignment. It is strange to think that I have the option of reverting back to my previous scheduling, or to take this experience and apply it to my life back on the Hill. Perhaps I will revert back to working when I am moved to do so regardless of the hour, or I may attempt to create this same structure and treat my work like a job, which will provide me with the same freedoms I have enjoyed this semester.
