Stephanie’s recent post about lunch made me nostalgic for the days before I did most of my work from home, when lunchtime seemed like a much-needed opportunity to reassert my inner freedom rather than (as it does now) a chance to catch up on emails and the news.
The most extreme instance was the summer before I went to grad school, when I took an intensive Latin course at CUNY. Without a doubt, it was the most grueling thing I’ve done — including grad school — I ate, breathed, and dreamed about that language, which we were expected to master in a matter of weeks. Class went from 9:30 until 4, with 4-6 hours of homework each night. For the first five weeks, lunch was a prized thirty minutes, the only time in the day when I could afford to think… nothing at all! After that, there was too much material and I had to spend my time studying.
Later on, when I had an office job, I’d use my lunch break to run errands or, occasionally, meet with friends. And now, as I say, it’s more fluid, though I do try to think of it as a break and not just another time for work.
How do you spend your lunch breaks?
