I'm having to download strange software just to download other strange software. I'm no computer genius. I click on "Download Now"-buttons with a trembling finger.
Why does work have to be so high-tech? I studied foreign language grammar, literature, culture and social structures for years and years to become a translator. Nobody ever told me I would encounter so many "Download Now"-buttons.
How many computer programs have I had to learn from scratch? Once I manage to learn all the features and commands of one, a new employer wants me to use another one that does the same job but looks as if it was created on a different planet. Sometimes I get hurried, incomplete instructions by a coworker, sometimes I have to figure out the basics of a complex new program with the help of Google.
Here I am today, downloading again. A new program, the third one in six months, for the same kind of job. Probably not the last one. Anxiously going through pages and pages of instructions in two foreign languages, sending off emails to the new employer with weird questions like "Is the .890 format necessary?" and knowing I will literally cry if the computer says "installation failed". And this is just the download stage.
At one point, I leave it all for a while and go off to first tidy up my flat, then put on some makeup. If I and my world look good, I feel more powerful and secure. I go to my window to stare at the horizon and tell myself: This is the beginning of the good life. I will accomplish this and then I will be free to travel the world with my laptop and do my job sitting on beaches, in cafés, in exotic places.
The road to freedom is littered with boulders, software glitches and "Download Now"-buttons.
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