Overall, I'm relatively resistant to band-wagoning. If for no other reason sometimes than just to remind myself that I'm most comfortable with my own thoughts and actions. Joining others for a specific cause is altogether different. Jumping because other people are, with no good reason, just isn't for me.
I may be considered an extrovert, and admittedly I'm quite outgoing, but I thoroughly enjoy being by myself. I don't think I ever realized how much I liked my space from others until I started working from home. A few people remarked that I would be going stir crazy inside a month when I made the switch from a bustling salon to a make-shift home office. Somehow I knew those assessments wouldn't hold true. I just had no idea that hours of being alone, five days a week would actually be something I loved.
In the course of the past year and a half, I have experienced a kind of dread over the thought of ever working anywhere that takes me beyond my front door. The possibility is always there; almost no job is secure. When there is uncertainty, my stress is mostly rooted in the daily grind I never dreamt of being a part of. Though I never felt like that in all my years of being behind the chair, I've never just worked one job either. There were plenty of retail and office positions that filled the financial gaps that hair often couldn't - all of which I loathed. That kind of negative energy can sap the happy, lightheartedness right out of a person.
For sure this does have a ring of entitlement to it, but it isn't as though I feel I'm above working in a cubicle behind a desk. I sit on my behind all day, working behind a desk...I just get to do it without makeup, getting dressed, or dealing with inter-office drama. I've never been able to conform to typical work routines, and I'm certain that my creative mind (read: non-stop imagination and thought churning brain) is the reason. Now this isn't to say I'm incapable of working under such circumstances; I absolutely can, and I have. I'm just a more relaxed, more positive version of me when life is predominantly on my terms.
Another aspect of this overall love for solitude is that I essentially work for myself. I've been my own boss for a few years now, and any thoughts about being an employee - no matter how amazing the company may be, just fuels the fire of resistance. I would much prefer to juggle several clients/accounts on my own to earn a living. Benefits be damned.
While being a part of the not-from-home workforce isn't exactly bandwagoning, the basic idea of doing what a majority of the world does is there. It's similar enough to make the leap. I've always been a bit of a square peg, and though I can hang around with the round ones just fine, there is little hope I will ever fit the same purpose in the exact same way. I'm okay with struggling until I figure out what works best, and I find I learn a whole lot more when I have to walk alone.
Being more at ease, smiling for almost no reason at all and looking forward to doing it day after day is worth every ounce of energy it takes to work well independently. Without a doubt I will continue this path I'm on for as long as I can, appreciating every good thing that comes about because of it.
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