The beauty of freelance consulting

A few days ago, somebody asked me about living in the US. We had a five minute conversation, if that long. Yet this morning when I walked into my office which I share with collections guy it smelled of coffee. You know the scent of freshly brewed coffee grounds – the kind of smell you get in those small coffee shops that haven’t heard of dark roast. And there I was, completely unprepared to be taken back to Davis to a little place I used to spend my afternoons in when I was in a desperate need to study.

Of course, I don’t remember the name of it, after all I graduated UCD in 1998, but when I was there in 2006, the place looked exactly the same. The patrons and workers there looked exactly the same. But why unprepared, you might ask.

Simple. Trips down the memory lane always leave something behind. That little longing for the good old days. When you say ‘Do you remember…’ it’s usually because you want to remember something. In my case it was a certain degree of carelessness, youthful freedom.  A time when I didn’t care that a BA in Medieval studies by itself will get me nowhere. A time when life was easier, less complicated. When the bigger concerns in life consisted of: should I ride my bike to school or take the UCD bus, or if the rugby match was home or away and would Phil, a physics PhD student, spare time rugby player  and a friend, give me a ride.

The complexities of life.

No problems are different. I no longer worry about how I will get to where ever I’m going, but more if I will have somewhere to go in the morning. If, when my project ends, I will have another project and another contract. Or will I go on unpaid vacation. The beauty of freelance consulting is that you can pick your work. I just wish there was more of it.

And then there is that small voice in the back of my head always asking if I should go back to the US. And the answer as always is: I don’t know, I really don’t know.