Personal space has been an important part of my general well-being for as long as I am able to recall.  Space at home, space at the office.  I need “my space” to thrive as a productive human doing (and human being).

Growing up, I had to share a room with my younger sister for many years and it nearly came to blows a few times over what I viewed as unwarranted intrusion into my space.  Even at night I wasn’t free from the invasions, my sleep was interrupted from afar as I woke up to another round of hearing her grind her teeth in the night.  Soon I had amassed an arsenal of throw pillows that I quite readily threw across the space twixt our twin beds, aimed directly at her head.  I was offended deeply by this interference upon my dreams and the day our older brother moved downstairs to the basement the sigh of relief that my sister was moving into his old bedroom may have been audible to the surrounding townships.  I moved my stack of pillows from the side of my bed back to the living and family rooms and uninterrupted, blissful sleep was not just in my present, but my future.

I grew older and went off to college where late nights brought heavy sleep with few exceptions (there are some stories there).  Eventually, I could even sleep through errant fire alarms and the crash of glass on Sunday mornings in the Recycling Room adjacent to my dorm room.  Even in that small, shared room, I still had my space, my desk.  My retreat where it was “Only Sarah.  All the time.”

Time went by and I got married and held various jobs over the years.  While at home, I had space to call my own, but most jobs involved shared work space that could never really be made into “my space”.  The one job I held where I had an office of my own, which I affectionately called “The Bat Cave,” left me feeling rapturous as I was able to close my door, put my head down and do my own thing with minimal distractions.  This is not so at my current job.

At present, I share an office with another human whose personality and mentality is so different from my own that I have reached the point of heart palpitations from stress.  I’ve also been eating way too much chocolate.  Damn stress-eating!

This situation has become motivation to move on office renovation at work and Wednesday, I found out that I was being moved in the not-too-distant future to a space of my own.  This would coincide with a full transition to what will be my new position as a full-time file auditor.  Then, yesterday, I was told that effective immediately, I was being set up in temporary digs in my new location while the office furniture is en route “because it just makes more sense this way.”  I’m good with that.

So, as of today, I’m back to having “my space”, both at home and at the office.  While my new location at the office has no walls and I’m at a folding banquette, soon I’ll be surrounded by 80″ tall partitions and a new desk with file cabinets and shelves for my books of state laws and company SOPs.  Bliss.  Space of my own.

That and a Fancy Coffee have made this the perfect way to start a Friday.