The Envious Lives of 9-to-5’ers

A “nine-to-five life” is regarded as the most common and standardized way of living. It’s predictable, routine and stationary…

It’s because of that “normalcy” that certain envious qualities are unafforded to itinerants such as myself.

I am a vagabond. I live a life nomadic. I live here, there, nowhere and yet everywhere. I don’t have roots but my seeds are planted everywhere.

This isn’t a “normal life”.

At least not by the Free World standard, despite the increasing rise of the digital / modern nomad.

A 9-to-5 lifer has a relatively fixed nature of life.

They have to be at a designated place to do designated functions at and during designated times (although not necessarily from 9am to 5pm) on a designated schedule to earn a designated amount of money.

I believe they call this a job or a career.

Just like being a smoker, I assume you can’t possibly understand what it’s like without actually living it.

The closest I’ve been to being a “9-to-5’er” was as a cover as a stockbroker during my former profession. It was a “practice cover” and now public knowledge so I can speak of it now. For all intents and purposes, a real job.

It was more like a 7am to 9pm thing but it’s really the same difference. I had to wake up the same time everyday, do the grind, eat a hurried lunch at the exact same time, do more grinding then I had some free time.

I have investments, real estate and savings but more importantly, I’m a minimalist that has shed my materialistic nature, so this isn’t about money.

That new structured and predictable element of my life was, well, nice. It was relaxing and felt… just easy.

As if I wasn’t living a double and covert life, always being sharp and alert. I could put my feet up and know what’s coming the next day, as suppose to being in active sentry mode at all times. I could just chill the fuck out.

The time after work and the weekends were for the first since high school, meaningful and valued. Something to look forward to. Working hours everyday and week made those times off that much more special. Because I had to earn the free albeit limited time.

You see, since I’ve been vagabonding, everyday is like a Saturday. Obviously that’s a beautiful thing but “Saturdays” are less meaningful when dreaded “Mondays” become meaningless.

As a vagabond, I’m blessed to be able to constantly meet people from all walks of life to the truest sense. There’s many reasons to travel but the human connection is irrefutably the most profound.

So yes, I have many friends, true friends, life-long friends, literally everywhere. But therein lays the problem, they’re “everywhere”, not “here”.

A 9-to-5’er does not have this bizarre situation.

Their friends are not only “there” with them but typically also follow the same pattern of life and time. Relationships can grow steadily, not sporadically.

This is what I envy most about the “normal life”. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade my life on the road for anything but it certainly is a trade off.

The Envious Lives of 9-to-5’ers.