Your Everyday Girl

“Good conversation feels like a great replacement for my vitamins,” that’s what my mom says after my dad and her went to a friend’s for lunch.

I respond with, “That’s what it’s like when you enjoy the company around you.” I give her a big smile and return my attention towards my laptop, the big clunky grey brick that has sucked out my soul these last few months.

Even though it’s terribly exhausting to use tech for every single thing in life (because if you don’t then you’ll lose out on efficiency), it has become the centre of my world.

My laptop is where all my work lies, both personally and professionally. It holds everything that I think of and has been both the input and output for my creativity.

Yet, I wish I could forget it sometimes. I wish I could delete social media too. Then I want to run off to an island and soak in some vitamin D because I don’t remember what it feels like to have the sun shine down on me.

Most of all, I wish I could constantly see my friends. I wish we could connect and reconnect without worrying about time zones and distance. I wish I could worry less about the my bills and the future and enjoy more of what I love right now.

I think back on my conversations with my friends a lot. I think back on certain moments, like the time when my friend Stephanie visited my sister and I in Montreal for a week and I couldn’t believe how effortless it was to have another person with us in the house. Sometimes you worry about sharing your space because it is the place you retreat to without any disturbances or distractions, but Stephanie just felt like a third sister living with us. Not a burden, but an addition.

I always think back on the times when my friend Lily would just call or text me to hang out. It was never a let’s-hang-out-in-a-month text, it was always a let’s-hang-out-in-an-hour text. Our time together didn’t have to be extravagant, it just had to be us sitting around a coffee table chatting about whatever the heck we wanted to or enjoying a walk while the cool air moved with us too. We lived for the present, the rest didn’t really scare us.

I always think back to the times when my friend Chelsea would laugh at the hilarious dance moves we would pull out of nowhere. I tried doing the griddy and I looked ridiculous. Truthfully, I don’t care if it’s embarrassing—all I cared about was seeing her laugh. Our problems weren’t so big when we would get together and just be goofy about it all.

I have stopped typing on my laptop. I shut this monster down because my eyes can’t take it anymore, the screen is tiring me out. I look at my mom, she’s drinking her coffee while watching her latest Turkish series. In this show, like all other Turkish shows, the main male lead and the main female lead are arguing over another family matter…again.

A few days ago, my sister said that more than half of the problems in these Turkish dramas wouldn’t exist if the couples stopped living in the same house with the entire family. But here we are, on the couch watching this couple’s relationship fall apart because of their family.

I tell myself, I think my mom will be fine if I interrupt her, so, I go ahead and say, “Tell me more about your time with friends at yesterday’s lunch.” She pauses the TV without hesitation and tells me about her time from the very beginning. I’m not kidding, she starts the story from the moment she is about to enter their friend’s house. I could tell the big flat screen of doom was draining her.

Your everyday girl,

Sara