I'll never forget my first day of work in London. It was 8am, I was walking to Clapham North tube in a slightly nervy (being my first day and all) but calm and collected manner about to start my exciting career in TV production. Then a man burst my bubble by cutting straight across me grunting agressively in my face - "Oh for F**k sake!" ...Wow! I thought, how can anyone be that stressed this early in the morning?
That day I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't allow London to change me. I would not let the rat race get the better of me! ...And then I started work, and my London life began.
Five years on, after lots of highs and a fair few lows - I found myself walking to the tube at 8am, stressed, anxious and angry at the world! It hit me - London had got me, it was time to move on!
It was a big decison but I took the plunge and moved from my Soho life of Advertising, back to my homeland of Chichester to work in a Marketing & Design Agency and was excited about starting a new chapter! Little did I know how hard the change of pace would would hit me, until I found myself still attempting to go at my auto-pilot 'Soho-speed' in M&S (simply trying to grab a quick sarnie on my lunch break) and noticed steam coming out of my ears - feeling the frustration of slow service and zimmer dodging! I realised - this is it now. No more, super speedy service in an uber trendy salad bar - M&S sarnies, salads and slow service are as good as it gets on a lunch break right now - I really am living in Chichester, aka 'Zimmer-ville'.
Reminding myself that I can not allow myself to be angry, anxious Suse in these situations anymore, I need to get back to calm, patient Suse! So, I told myself; let's embrace these 'Golden Oldies', slow down and start snapping them, instead of *snapping at them!
(*I never actually snapped at them - that was simply for creative writing purposes!*)
Remember - Embrace your Golden Oldies. With any luck you'll be one eventually! x
