I treat the week like I still have a job to wake up to in the morning. It really keeps me grounded in some semblance of a reality. A journalist I know who has also been laid off told me that my schedule was his complete opposite. Where I go to bed at 11:00 and wake up around 7:30; he goes to bed at 2:00 a.m and wakes up at 3:00. I haven’t done that routine since I was an undergrad in college. I have enough trouble staying awake past 11:00 as it is.
Pretending to still have a job and keeping the same hours that my friends and former colleagues do keeps me connected to the outside world. Otherwise, I feel like that robot kid from Small Wonder. Instead of going to school every day it’s like they forgot to let me out. So I wake up early to be a part of the world I was laid off from.
Some mornings are harder than others but then I remember back to my employed days and realize that back in the day I also had mornings that I didn’t want to wake up and I give myself slightly less guilt about it.
