My sister worked the last day of her last shift in her part time gig of over five years three weeks ago yesterday.

Her reason for quitting was that she had had enough.  There was no one incident that propelled her to quit, but she just decided that one full time job was sufficient to provide her needs (not surprising since she is the world’s best saver of every penny that crosses her path).  She has no plans to find a new part time job, take up a hobby or join a club, no plans to volunteer her newly free evenings and weekends away.  She hasn’t even mentioned increasing her visits to the library that she loves so.  Instead, she’s looking forward to enjoying halcyon evenings and weekends after a busy day or week of work.

I’m stumped.  And jealous.

Jealous that she doesn’t feel the same need I do to have a busy schedule anymore, to work two and sometimes three jobs at the same time and keep busy.  Because I don’t save money with the same competency that she does, I worry that I won’t have enough money to accomplish my goals unless I work more (yes, instead of saving more).  The fact that I want to buy a car and a house without making any significant sacrifices keeps me working.  That and the fact that I just plain like money:  I like being able to spend it, I like the things I can get with it.

But when my sister makes decisions like working less, rather than more, it makes me think.  In these past three weeks she’s been more relaxed, less prone to anger and she seems to enjoying herself.  She’s had time to watch every hockey game that our home team has played in the last few weeks (I do not particularly envy her that, hockey is not my passion) but I see that she’s enjoying herself in her own way.

And I wonder…

Filed under: Family, Outrospective, WurdyGurdy by jummy