First, it was interesting, and second, I earned money. Chump change, of course, but better than nothing. On my 18th birthday I was officially on staff. This was the beginning of my office work: five days a week, eight hours a day. Salary, stability and a room with my desk. I worked for the children’s newspaper, filmed stories for TV, contributed to several publications, made news reports and edited texts. They paid little everywhere, but altogether this made up some decent earnings. Most importantly, I unconsciously gained experience, got connections and perfected by communications skills. The Internet was actively becoming a part of our life, opening new horizons and enabling to gain new knowledge and skill. At the age of 21, I left children’s publications for entertainment journalism: someone might have seen clubbing, gigs, high life and fashion shows as symbols of dolce vita, while I took this opportunity to write several thousand characters for articles about the same event in different styles for various publications. I still had to work for several employers in order to gather all my remunerations and salaries at the end of a month and to plug holes in the family budget and pay bills. I spent any spare money, if left, to buy a relatively presentable second hand shirt: the dress code at events still had to be observed, and it was presentations and premières that brought in money. At the age of 24, I was hired to launch an international magazine (franchise); this was an incredibly interesting, hard and prestigious job. There I had to forget about a five-day work week: during the first four months in the project I had barely six days off. However, I earned decent money and, finally, quitted writing for other publications. I spent almost four years there.
And then I got a significant depressive disorder, which lasted for more than two years, and burnout. A frantic pace of work over many years, starting from the eighth grade at school, a huge responsibility, management of a team of almost thirty people, other family and personal concerns had gradually shattered my nerves and undermined my health. I could not grasp what was happening to me for a long time: I tried to restore my well-being by taking unpaid leaves, escaping for rest to other countries, excluding all energy-consuming activities, and adding more contact with relatives and close friends, but at some point I had to accept the new reality, take antidepressants prescribed by a psychiatrist and start psychotherapy. One of the most important resolutions taken during my psychotherapy was to leave my office job and quit running the wheel.
