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Tomorrow, we’ll be halfway there. Officially. Everything has been crazy fast. I can’t think of one moment where the time seemed to drag on. Nope, not when I was staring at a computer for 8 hours a day. Nope, not even when I was stuck on a bus with a blown-out tire for four hours, fifteen minutes away from Job #2.

Well with the bus, the looming possibility of a riot of people who “just can’t take it anymore!” was secretly thrilling and hilarious to me. So maybe that situation isn’t the best example.

There are seconds where I wish I could fully comprehend the passage of time, but then those seconds fly away because I’m too busy living those seconds, filling those seconds with memories that matter. I suppose the only thing that I can do…that I can keep doing…is stop. And give thanks. In any way possible. I think I can slow the clock this way. Just a little bit. Sufficiently.

For the past four days (including today), I’ve eaten at least one Cliff Bar for breakfast, and a pizza slice for lunch. I usually take a box of pizza home for dinner, where I eat it happily while I do my thing(s) on my laptop.

Today, as I was walking home with two slices of cheese and one “slice of the day” aka a FRESH tomato, FRESH basil, and FRESH mozzarella pizza slice, I passed by a much older, African-American man whom one would assume to be homeless. Let’s call him “Cole.” I’ve been trained from a young age to ignore homeless people for reasons which I’m sure you can come up with yourself:

- Homeless people aren’t really homeless.

- Homeless people could get a job and a home if they just tried.

- Homeless people just use your money to buy alcohol. Brown bag, anyone?

- …Homeless people aren’t really homeless.

I don’t think of these statements as I’m passing by a homeless person; I just pass by without thinking. Yep, I’m guilty of this. It’s just easier. So today, I passed by. And as I continued walking past Cole, the sound…of the jingling…of the coins…in the cup…that Cole was holding…randomly caught my attention. I suddenly felt stupid. Not selfish, stupid. Of course!

I have a confession to make.

I didn’t choose my job this week. That was part of the deal as a participant in this Program, but I just got lazy and decided to choose only seven jobs and make someone else choose the eighth.

Just kidding! Well, not about the not choosing. About the laziness. This week, I’m working at one of The Upper Crust Pizzeria locations in Boston, Massachusetts. More traveling, heyyyy:

The trip on Saturday was my shortest at only four hours, ~217 miles. That means I’ve traveled ~3,058 miles by bus. So amazing.

I suppose I should explain why I didn’t choose my job for this week. A friend of mine, Marsha, is in Boston for a summer internship. After Boston, she’ll be off to Europe for the fall semester. Yes, that would be nine whole months of separation! We couldn’t have that. We decided that if I got the One-Week job opportunity, I would make a serious effort to come to Boston for one of my weeks.

There was a moment where I had this crazy idea that it would be DOUBLY growing if I were to trust my job to another person. It would’ve been even more crazy to put my future into the hands of someone I had never met before, but I wasn’t about that much risk at the time. I wanted to not only be surprised, but I also wanted to show my love for a dear friend by trusting her enough with something like this.