Rose-Colored Glasses

I remember multiple history professors warning us that people have a strong tendency to view the past through rose-colored glasses. I have succumb and am officially one of those people.

Recently, while trying to get my eyes to uncross from a morning full of data and spreadsheets, I found myself browsing the food service section of online job ads thinking to myself 'I have lots of coffee experience, I could be a barista at this place... ooo or this one.' I officially hung up my espresso apron just before leaving college and haven't looked back, until now. I used to make a mean cup'o'joe, but going back to minimum wage + tips doesn't seem like logical evolutionary growth for my career, or my bank account.

Thats when I realized I'm not longing for the job, I'm longing for the life I had during that time. I'm pretty sure everyone looks back at their college days with a sort of nostalgia that clouds the gratitude and progress of today; everyone looks back at that time with rose-colored glasses. I suppose in normal, productive, successful human being terms, I'm better off today than I was back then.

But as I sit in my cubicle watching the minutes slowly tick closer to 5pm, I start to wonder if I really want to judge my life in normal terms. My recent vacation - from work, computers, most phone calls, and all TV - was the healthiest I've felt in a long time. I feel perpetually... gross... when sitting at my desk day in and day out. My eyes feel like their failing, my stomache turns relentlessly, my wrists hurt and I'm trapped in one giant sinus flare-up; not to mention the awful case of office-butt I'm terrified I'm developing. Rose-colored glasses or not, I'm definitely longing for times past and jobs far removed from servers and cubicle walls.