Inbetween the wonderful world of a first-time traveller and a full-time student, I have come to the realisation that the world outside mine sucks! My pretty little bubble of an expat life has been bursted and my reclusive yet enjoyable holiday has come to end. I'm set to return to Santiago soon and instead of enjoying my last few days catching up with friends, chowing down on all of my favourite foods, I've found myself as the baby-sitter of the family business whilst my parents are away!
You see there are a a myriad of differences between my life and the rest of the worlds. Their lives are so systematic, mine is so spontaneous. And now that I have been deemed the rightful baby-sitter of the business, I have also unwillingly caved. I wake up at the same time everyday and more or less sleep at the same time everyday. I have no time for food, work has absorbed my life and I'm pretty sure the only decent meal I've had is dinner. All this and I'm working from home.
It's tough to be the boss. There's all these decisions to make, people to please, bills to chase. Yet 2 darn weeks of it has left me flabbergasted at the amount of things my parents handle within a week. You see, having your own small business with limited staff is a completely different ball game to working as a top employee for Henderson Global Investment or interning at The Times. You have to actually care. That loss you make, you aren't just chasing it because you'll be in a hell of a lot of trouble if your line manager finds out, but, you're chasing it because it really matters to you, and the fact that you could make a loss is eating away your insides, taking you into a state of paranoia and suffocating the life out of you. There is no room to breathe. it's just WORK WORK WORK. 24/7.
This at the same time as stepping in as the mother/wife role for the family. Technically anyways. It's just the children, oh, I mean siblings I'm running around after. My weekends and weekdays have been dominated by football games, weekly shops, washing the bros clothes (in time for university), cleaning and cooking dinner for my sister just as she arrives from work. Yep. I am the woman of all women. I have succumbed to the whims and woes of a 30 something year-old young mother and I am a living example of the ultimate wonder woman; housewife and breadwinner. *rolls eyes* And yet, I just don't see myself living this way in the future. I want there to be some sort of adventure and resistance to the real world. I'm a dreamer and an adventurer. And perhaps the only way I can gain some sort of satisfaction in the future is by combining work with my ideal lifestyle. The chocolate business is something I would never allow my parents to give up, nor would I give up on it, but let's just say maybe there is a way I can create my own real world and dabble in a bit of everything. Or is that too ambitious…?
