My life with furniture
Author: Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D.

This article may be reprinted or reposted in its entirety if you also include my resource box.

Every so often I think of writing a Back to School article. However, I now live in a warm climate, The weather feels like a lazy summer school, not a serious winter term. No need to lay in a supply of sweaters and sweatshirts.

But the real reason is that, increasingly, the lines are blurred between school and Real Life. These days, student life often means spending a cozy evening with your computer, e-mailing your classmates and posting your assignments to a website. You might be catching a class on weekends, evenings or two-week learning modules.

Even traditional campus life is designed for grown-ups. Two years ago, the New York Times Magazine carried a story about life in the New Dorms. Apparently some upscale schools are decorating the dorms to look like yuppie condominiums, complete with carpeting and what the Times calls "adult-sized refrigerators."

Meanwhile, a lot of grown-ups who are old enough to remember typing their term papers are still living like students. Books, magazines and loose stacks of paper are strewn everywhere.

Books call for bookshelves. A Real Student secretly misses the bricks and boards, although today the bricks and boards cost more than particle board shelves and are impossible to move.

When I lived in Alaska, I realized there was no point in buying Real Furniture. You could equip a ten-room house for the cost of shipping the contents of a studio apartment to the Lower 48. I ended up buying a couch from a graduating student and added an extra futon to the Bedroom Set. When I moved to my next job, I fully intended to do the same until a colleague asked me, "Isn’t there a time in your life when you stop buying used couches from students?"

A friend told me she had a similar experience when she visited a Real Furniture Store, seeking bookshelves. The salesperson showed her a nice unit for 0. Seeing that my friend was about to pass out, the salesperson explained, "This is a piece of furniture that you will be proud to display in your home."

My friend left the store in a daze. Somehow, she explained later, she had never thought of bookshelves as furniture.

I’d like to think we’re all grown up now, but it’s hard. For one thing, many professions encourage us to live like a student with five term papers due at the end of the term and no graduation in sight. If you’re writing a book, teaching a seminar, preparing for a court case, coaching a sports team or putting together a sales presentation, there’s always something more you could be doing, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. People who have the souls of Real Students seem attracted to those jobs.

Still, I see progress. A friend called to say he bought a house because he was tired of living like a student and was ready to grow up. He was forty-five at the time.

I myself have acquired some Real Furniture, including the Beautiful New Couch I bought eight years ago, although I still insist that sleeping on a few layers of futons is healthier than a conventional bedroom set. Thanks to my lawn service person, who is a student, I have a real, grown-up yard. Recently, while walking the dog, I met a young student who had transformed her rental cottage into a home worthy of House Beautiful. I suggested she moonlight as a decorator to help those who have graduated and finally decided to become adults.

We will never succeed completely. My friend with the house just called to say that his two cats have shredded most of the trappings of his adult life. I understand perfectly. My Beautiful New Couch has served as a place for me, my house-sitters and my guests to take naps, and the cats have carried out extensive performance tests on each cushion.

The moving companies see a couch as a challenge to their insurance guidelines. I haven’t been a student but the couch has gone through a reverse graduation: it looks far more exhausted than its predecessor

--

the couch I bought, ten years ago, from a student.








--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D. author, coach, speaker
Helps mid-career professionals move to career freedom
Nine Magic Keys to Career Freedom
http://www.movinglady.com/freedombook.html
Career Freedom Ezine mailto:subscribe@movinglady.com
emai: cathy@movinglady.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------