En roue libre...ou presque - Lux comme il faut (pas) Part II

This last week has been very demanding. Not only for the amount of work/meetings/activities planned, but also because of a terrible, terrible cold I caught. Of course I didn't want to stay at home with all the deadlines approaching so I kept going to work despite looking like a zombie and despite some people tried hard to scare me off: "The cold is just the first step. Then you get pneumonia. And then a heart infection. And then you die". Luckily I am still alive, although my red nose makes me look like a drunkard and laughing is still painful (every time I laugh I start caughing like a hardcore smoker in the morning). One of the worst things about having a cold is that you don't smell absolutely anything, while people around you keep going: "Mmmmm, ça sent bon!" Frustrating.

Cold aside I am happy. Very happy. And people seem to notice it. I know my happiness should not depend on what other people think of me, but let's be honest, positive feedback has never done any harm. So far people have been very happy with my translations (transterpretations is probably a more appropriate term, given that the first draft is almost always a sight translation) and I have even managed to make some quite clever comments (hard to belive, huh?) in a terminology meeting. Positive feedback is exactly what I need to get even better and faster at what I do. I now know for sure that I am a workaholic, and just as well I am, considering the number of hours I spend at work every day!

Happiness is a weird thing. We've all been taught that feeling too much happiness is never good because it can only be balanced out by something bad happening. I've personally never thought that this is true and I've always enjoyed that nice happy feeling when something good happens. Even more so in the last few months, since I've learnt to see the positive side of life starting from the most insignificant details. Yesterday was one of those days. I finally managed to book my tickets to Amsterdam to go see M. in two weeks. I had to ask for my deadlines to be moved back, take two days off, spend one hour discussing about my trip with the lady at the train station, organising assistance, making sure there is an early morning train to Luxville from where I live, figuring out how to carry my trolley from my flat to the train station, making sure my tyres get pumped before I leave... Little details which take time. Once I was able to cross out the last item on my to-do list I felt really satisfied and I realised that my organisational skills really weren't as bad as I thought. When I got home half an hour later and saw two missed calls on my mobile, I knew right away that something didn't work out. Apparently one of the trains I was supposed to take had been replaced by a bus and I wouldn't be able to get on it because the service does not include special assistance for people in wheelchairs. The fact that no assistance is provided is bad enough. What's even worse, though, is that the lady on the phone suggested I travel through Brussels and pay an extra 120 euros for the ticket!

Yes, some people obviously think that money grows on trees and that if you have special needs, then you should be ready to pay more to get what you need. The problem is that I am never going to agree to this. And maybe that's where I am wrong. Is there a point in trying to push the limits further and further, while knowing that the society we live in will always see you as a second-class citizen? Isn't that just a waste of energy and time? I have spoken to many disabled people who tried hard to live like "normal" people, but everything required so much more time and effort. In the end they got tired, frustrated and resentful so they decided to give up.  Have you ever asked yourself why you hardly see any wheelchair user on buses or simply going for a stroll in town by themselves? In most Asian countries the only disabled people you see on the street are those selling lottery tickets. Maybe I'd be better off doing that too, but I am still young and feel like I can still do my bit to make this world a bit more humane. It might not be enough, it might not lead to a concrete result, but if you don't try, you'll never know.

Life is a race. If you stop, you are screwed. Mika knows what I am talking about :)