Work Life Balance

 

Even into his thirties, Andrew would often think back to his childhood, his parent’s and being an only child in a military family. Both of his parents were decorated Navy Seals, ridiculously successful in their multiple deployments around the world. He was born in the United States and moved from military base to military base, in more countries than he could count. He grew up among adults, attended school in Afghanistan, South Korea, Syria, Germany, and Columbia, all of which required him to learn the languages of his classmates.

After eighteen years of military life, surrounded predominantly by military personnel, he moved away from home upon graduation, longing for a normal life among normal people in the safe and calm United States. With a brain full of self-defense skills, gun expertise, and five languages, he was a raging success in every avenue he pursued in the free world. He had never actually known a normal childhood, but instead only ever thought like, spoke like, and acted like an adult who assessed every situation, every movement, and every room he entered.

After completing university, he had no desire to enter the military. The thought of sitting behind a desk and working on a computer seemed insanely boring to him. Instead, he chose to enter into the vocation of a bodyguard. Having weapons training, self-defense skills, and fluency in multiple languages made him an incredibly value resource for the rich and powerful who traveled the world. As each month passed, he watched his bank account grow at a surprising rate, which prompted him to consider taking a lengthy vacation with any of the hundreds of girls that sought his attention.

When his bank account reached half a million, he notified his lawyer that he would be taking a break from his work for a couple of months and do some traveling. His lawyer immediately responded with an email, asking him to stop by the office and fill out some paperwork declaring the exact details of his plans and how to respond to potential new clientele. As it was only two in the afternoon, Andrew stopped for a coffee and drove to his lawyer’s office.

The four-page document covered every possible detail of his vacation plans, his date of return, and how to respond to potential new clients. He drove home to an empty home, found a map of the world, and began to plan his next five vacations. “I need to see quality art, I need to be somewhere warm, and I would love to visit those places the military did not bring us,” he thought. “Now I need to think about which girl to invite for each trip. Two weeks with each one, in a different place, would be a great change of pace. It would be nice to have different company for each vacation.”

“Some of them like the heat, some of them like art, and some of them like to just travel and most love to be spoiled with shopping and fancy restaurants,” he said to himself. “Let’s see, Britney loves art, so she and I can go to Paris, visit the Louvre, and any other artistic or architectural wonders in that glorious old city.” He placed a phone call to Britney, invited her to join him on his trip to France, which she immediately accepted.

“I was hoping to leave next weekend,” he told her. “If you can absolutely confirm your intent to join me, I’ll buy the plane tickets, rent a hotel room, and make plans for what to do on each day.”

“Yes, absolutely,” she said. “I won’t have any trouble taking time off of work. I have quite of bit of vacation time built up, so it won’t be a problem. When you work out the details, let me know what day and time you’ll pick me up.”

In a mechanical process, Andrew continued the same process for his trip to the beaches in Ecuador, calling Madeline to join him a few days after returning from France. He wrote down every detail, in the rigid, militaristic approach to life that was taught to him by his parents. Madeline too immediately accepted his invitation, which he followed up with more phone calls, more reservations, more plane tickets, and several orders online for clothes and any other necessities.

This became a pattern for the next three vacations. Each one following the previous by a couple of days off in between, giving himself time to relax, to enjoy some solitude, and the boredom of home life. Lisa accepted his invitation to travel to St. Petersburg and a few other locations in western Russia. Like all of the others, he carefully documented each day, each evening, and he bought more tickets for shows, for symphonic performances, and the comfort of fine dining and five-star hotels.

His next call was to Abigail, whom he remembered as one who loved to travel in general. He made plans with her to hop from city to city, covering eight different cities across western Europe. Their first destination was the city of Copenhagen, which would be followed by train rides from city to city, enjoying the beauty of nature, the comfort of first-class travel, and one another’s company. He deliberately chose this fourth trip with Abigail to be the busiest. He saved his final trip with Nataliya for an African safari, knowing how much she loved animals and warm weather.

With a groan, he collapsed on his couch, his head full to overflowing with travel details, hotel reservations, numberless performances to watch, and dinner reservations in the finest of restaurants. He casually flipped through his notebook, reminding himself of the basic flow of life for the next twelve weeks. “Phew, this is going to be one heck of a summer,” he thought. “I need to get hold of the bank about getting me the right cash for each country and for each city.”

“Okay, I’ve got eight days before I need to be ready for the first trip.” After a quick shower, he watched a movie, enjoyed a bottle of Malbec with a meat and cheese tray. His mind was a whirlwind of details, which he wished he could suppress and ignore. He finished his movie, finished his meat, cheese, and wine and went to bed to rise early, knowing that he had almost numberless details to address.

Late the next morning, he visited his bank, ordered cash for each trip, and a specific schedule for when the funds would be needed. The Euro would cover his needs across western Europe, he would need an obscene amount of rubles for his trip to Russia, as well as the American dollar for his trip to Ecuador. He was uncertain of his monetary needs for Africa, so sought guidance from his banker in that regard. With everything in place and scheduled, he left the bank with plans to return in three days to retrieve the abundance of cash in the form of the Euro.

He returned home, placed a call to Britney and gave her the details for their trip, the day and time he would be picking her up at home. He readied himself for weeks of inane conversation, ridiculous spending, and spoiling these silly, immature, and distracted young women. He appreciated Britney’s love for art and always enjoyed conversations with her about the different artists, the different composers, and the fine dining they would enjoy.

In each location across the globe over the many weeks of travel, he made of point of financially supporting the homeless people they encountered as they traveled from place to place. Each girl was the same, except for Britney. Each one chastising him for giving away money to lazy people. He full well knew that this would be their response, and he reminded them that he was spoiling them as well. That it was his money and there were people who had needs and how it was good and right to help others, especially when there were children involved.

Two weeks in Paris was followed by a two-day break, which was followed by two weeks in Ecuador, which was a nice change from the cool and rainy French environment. He took three days off after Ecuador to prepare himself for two weeks with Lisa in Russia. He took four days off after Russia, knowing that city hopping for two weeks with Abigail would be exhausting. Which was followed by three days off and a trip across Africa with Nataliya.

Each vacation was the same. Ridiculous amounts of spending, perfect comfort, fine dining, performances, and the giving away of money and necessities to the many homeless and needy people in each location. He and Nataliya returned to the United States from Kenya. He gave her a ride home, and collapsed on his bed at home, thrilled to be done with so much travel, so much play and so much ridiculous conversation with small minded and vain girls who were several years younger than he.

He lounged around his house for three days before calling his lawyer. He put together a financial plan that shocked his usual spending sensibilities. “This was a great balance of fun, comfort, entertainment, and helping those in need,” he thought. “I really should do more for those in need and less for the shallow comforts of these ridiculous young women. It is nice to get out and do fun things with other people. A break like this every couple of years is probably a good idea.”

Feeling rested and relaxed, he phoned his lawyer, informing him of his return home and his plan to return to work within the week. “Please go ahead and schedule the next client, if there is one. The vacations were great, but I really feel the need to get active again. Thanks for keeping my work life on the rails while I was gone. Call me when something comes up.”

“Yes, Andrew, of course,” he answered. “There were a few phone calls while you were away. I know some of them planned well in advance, so you most certainly have work lined up. Mr. Darlington has requested your services in four days from now. So please be ready for his needs. He said he would forward the details to us. I expect them tomorrow. Have a good day, sir.”