A Little MS with a Little MSW

I started to write this post about cubicle life in September of last year. Almost one year ago now. Have you ever had so many words around a certain topic that they all rush to your hands, clogging the ends of your fingertips, giving new meaning to writer’s block?

Oh, Cubicle Life….what to say about this commonplace, soul-crushing existence. And I’m an introvert. For me, it was a decade-long experience, set to the clacking of keyboards and the hum of testosterone. Being the flower on the wall is my literal comfort zone but this environment takes even the most skilled introvert and squeezes them so hard that little social butterflies emerge from every pore.

Ironically, amidst all the silence, friendships that defy logic were born. The setting was a small engineering firm, where anything that defied logic was not welcome (#iykyk). Yet, I grew to love them. Some of them. The resilient soul can flourish and expand, even in a corporate environment designed to squash it. Maybe it was our common awkwardness, that permeated the laminate and fabric partitions. I’ll never know, really.

I do know that I recall cubicle life with equal parts nostalgia and disdain. Nostalgia not for the silent, robotic, sterility of it all, but for the laughter, the comfort, and the support hidden in that silent office, with the plain, hard cubicles.

Clack, clack, clack…