20 days a year

I am now on holidays until the end of next week. Which means I have 2 whole weeks to do only the things that matter to me. I have books to read (I have finished Harry Potter #7 already), blogposts to write, shopping to do, friends to see… I have my life to live.

I started thinking about this more after having read a post on an iVillage board, where a 36 yo woman was asking: « am I the only one who works to live? My life happens from 7 to 10 PM and on week-ends. » And really, I can say, too, that my life happens during 3 hours at night and those 20 days of vacation I am getting each year (if you live in the US, please replace 20 by 10, and I guess the feeling will apply even more).

I can’t help but thinking: what a waste. I don’t hate my job, there are things in it that I really like doing and that helps me deal with the other boring stuff. But still, if I didn’t need to get the money that job allows me to make, I would probably stop going there in a minute.
I would probably not stay inactive, but I would find ways to work on something I like without having to make it rentable. I would use all my time for the things I care the most about: family, friends, culture, and my passions: writing and webdesign.

I think this example is even more freaking: a colleague of mine uses these 20 days a year to travel abroad where all her family lives. She spends 340 days a year waiting for that moment and missing her folks. And I think this is really unfair.

Of course we all have to work. But my Finnish colleagues get 42 days of vacation each year. That’s almost 2 whole months. Of course it costs more money to the finnish companies, but I do think they are benefiting from people who do not have to squezze the important things in their life into 2 or 4 weeks a year.

Don’t you have that feeling sometimes, that the unimportant things are taking more and more place and that your life only gets what is left? Or is your job your life?