Putting in the Time

Some of you who know me well know that several of my habits could lead you to question whether or not I am actually a human being. These include my ability to eat the same thing every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for extended periods of time, the fact that my favorite running temperature is below 40 degrees F, and my dislike of writing about my feelings in blog entries. However, I'm going to break with tradition and have a human moment. I apologize, Valerie, in advance, that this blog post has the top two qualities of a bad blog post-- long and no pictures.

It's been an interesting first few months in California for Aaron and I-- not interesting in a bad way, but in a growing way. For those of you who aren't familiar with the investment banking industry, it's one that brings new meaning to the words "hard work." On average, they work 80 - 120 hours a week. There is no busy season-- that's just how it is almost all the time. For instance, today Aaron left for work at 6:15 this morning after having only gotten one hour of sleep (since he got back at 4 in the morning for the second day in a row). I stopped by his office to meet him for dinner at 7:30. One hour later, he was able to leave. So we went to McDonald's together (foodies, don't judge), for a quick dinner. It was the first time he'd eaten all day since 9:30 that morning. Then he headed back in to the office. It's Friday night at midnight, and he's still not home yet.

Has it been hard? It is what it is (easy for me to say, right?). We went into this knowing what we were getting into. And we've had to get creative. Our family dinners consist of me picking Aaron up from work so we can get Chipotle or Baja Fresh to go. We talk on the way there and back, but don't eat together because he usually doesn't have time. I spend a lot of time at work so I can keep myself busy and surrounded by people. We have a dry erase marker on our bathroom mirror so we can leave each other notes.

It's an interesting decision we've made to throw work-life balance out the window. Of course, there comes a time when you need to make a decision about whether or not something is really worth it. But there is also a time for sacrifice and a time to lay the foundation for a career you love. If it was going to be like this all the time, we would never have signed up for it. But the hours and the quality of life do get better. The last thing I would ever want is for Aaron to be stuck in a job for the next forty years where he saw no potential for growth or upward movement.

Are we crazy? Probably. But we established that already in the first paragraph (at least we established that I am crazy). The way I look at it, the best things in life don't come without hard work. And that's what we're doing now-- putting in the time.