The Belonging Lady writes from the Watercooler

 





One of the things I miss most about expat life is living in a country with only one TV station. The Belonging LadyTM LOVED watching the 9 pm novela with AN ENTIRE COUNTRY. And the awkward kid inside me was SO RELIEVED to have something to make small talk about with ANYONE! “Will Tiago ever realize he really loves Maria? Will Maria ever overcome the death of her mother?” stay tuned…

In England, we had the BBC and whatever show was playing in the 9 pm slot that evening. Either we were dancing with Strictly, playing pranks with Michael McIntyre, or solving murders with some middle-aged, dumpy savant in the backwoods of Great Britain. We were together, united in our lack of choice. 

It’s rare that we have this opportunity in the USA to jump on a bandwagon. As I-O psychologists, we have our patron saint, Adam Grant, who we religiously follow and whose tagline (“Making work not suck”) we freely steal. As social science researchers, we devour every offering that Brene Brown serves up. And our most exciting new obsession as a LinkyNation, we’re all jumping on the Francis Frei bandwagon. In the entertainment world,
Netflix gives us mandatory viewing like Squid Game or K-pop Demon Hunters every so often. And then, of course, we must quote Ted Lasso, just to let people know we care about kindness. 

And so, when I grew bored with my music playlist the other day and went looking for an audiobook, I discovered Project Hail Mary. Audible had been nagging me to take this trip to outer space for months now. And now I have a quandary, I have 14 hours of book to go before I can see the movie. “Why is this a quandary?” you ask. Because the WHOLE COUNTRY is seeing the movie NOW. Not 4 weeks from now when I finish that book. 

So, if you see me walking my dog at weird hours with my AirPods in, muttering about space and science, mind your business. I'm trying to earn my seat at the national watercooler before the conversation moves on. Turns out, you can take the girl out of the one-TV-station country, but you can't take the one-TV-station country out of the girl.

PS: How many thought this was going to end with an “April Fools!”? It’s day one of #WriteonQ ! Join me!



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