Another Day At The Office....For Now

The clock is ticking.

Rain is falling. Incessantly. Non-stop, flood-raging rain. Record breaking really. It pelts the window next to my desk 8 stories up in droves when the wind gushes its 40 mile per hour gusts upon the 4 Point Channel on the waterfront here in South Boston. Creating intricate patterns as each drop trickles down the glass pane.

The clack of various keyboards sounds from cubicle to cubicle. Murmured voices off in distant conference rooms loom in the background. The whoosh of the vents as the forced air, manufactured air, never fresh air is pushed through from the center of the massive room.

Footsteps of people walking though to other areas. Sliding glass doors that cordoned off our area from the next swoosh as they slide open on their automatic sensor. A random cough from the other end of the room.

It's Monday and it's essentially quiet. Meetings ongoing, papers printing, reports typing. Emails being sent and received. Phone calls made.

I sit at my desk and I feel the faint rumble of the subway below me. Like the feeling your stomach makes when you're hungry, it gurgles and vibrates below the city, below the building. Barely noticeable unless you pay attention to it.

I stare blankly at my over-sized monitor, gleaming brightly in a room illuminated with mostly artificial light on this gloomy day. A fluorescent wonderland in a grey world. Music emanating from my speakers just loud enough for me to hear, like my own little secret right here in my own concrete jungle.

I am eerily calm. Serene in my final days in this atmosphere. Comfortable. It's cathartic. Homey. I am entirely at ease here.

But what may lie ahead for me? What sounds and sights will I have in store for me in the very near future?

Will it be a bustling chaotic place? Boisterous people and phones ringing off the hook? Will I have the view I do now of airplanes taking off from Logan, loaded with people escaping Boston and off to various destinations for business and pleasure? Will I be able to sit and imagine myself as I do now aboard one? Lost in my own thoughts?

Will I be able to drown out the familiarity as I am able here? Close myself off to my surroundings and adapt myself to the tasks at hand? Or will it be overly distracting? Will I be alone in my location or surrounded as I am here? The clacks of others work chiming in with my own, or will the sounds of my own productivity be the sole means of music to my ears?

As I sit and bask in the last weeks, days and hours of my life here at Gillette, I cannot help but fear the unknown. Cannot help but wonder where my future employment lies, or even if it lies at all. Will anything I've done prove fruitful? Will interviews behold some semblance of hope? Or be a drastic waste of time and current hourly wage?

For now, all I can do is sit. Sit and take it all in.

And just add to the ambiance that is my day, right here, right now.