5 days since the operation; aside from the fact that my knee looks like a swollen octopus head, recovery seems to be going smoothly.
Rumour has it the outside world is snowy and very chilly so I have wisely decided to bind myself to my bed for a week.
As a student, I always thought I was lost and trying to figure out where my place was in the world. Little did I know that this feeling of floating would only fortify as I crept into my mid-twenties.
Which brings me to another silver stitching that this knee fiasco has shed light on.
Being unable to rush, physically, has also made me slow down overall. London, in my eyes, is the city of the rat race. Rent is extortionate, transport is not cheap and it is all too easy to burn a pint-sized hole in your pocket. It's hard to blame anyone for getting caught up in mindlessly elbowing each other on the rush-hour underground, seemingly in a hurry to get to a job they would probably rather not be in.
As a self-employed translator, I went straight from education to a rather structureless work life, so don't really even see myself as ever having been a part of the dreaded rat race. Yet, having been in a job that I did not find overly stimulating, though loved everything else about (people that I worked with, freedom etc.), to quit meant taking a leap into the unknown. In a different way to relocating on a whim to the Alps a year earlier, it is a slightly scarier vacuum of security and stability, but nonetheless a necessary push to get the mind exploring new opportunities and possibilities all over again.
The coinciding of my unemployment and my immobility has funnily enough been quite liberating, as well as frustrating and at times scary. Though peppered with moments of anxiety and necessary life-admin, it has meant I have not felt guilty, for once, for sitting on the sofa and reading a book. Most importantly, without the safety net of my translation work, I started to explore previously unexplored possibilities and made considerably more effort to open up new ones for myself.
I started learning to play the ukulele and a friend, upon request, gave me his unused guitar to play around with. I took a Graphic Design course online because, why not? and threw in a philosophy one as well. Most importantly I've learnt, the hard way, that cramming in too much stuff can have bitter results and force you to slow down or even come to a full stop.
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