Six Months on the Other Side

Before taking unpaid leave, Omar told colleagues he would spend six months discovering what really mattered. He planned long walks, serious books and perhaps a journey without a return date. During the first week, he mainly slept and repaired a dripping tap. By the second, he had started avoiding messages asking how his exciting new life was going.

His neighbour invited him to help paint a community room. Omar nearly refused because the task seemed too ordinary for a period meant to transform him. Then he noticed that he had spent the morning comparing train fares without choosing a destination. He went downstairs, where the neighbour handed him a roller and asked him to protect the sockets.

They worked badly at first, leaving streaks that had to be covered again. Nobody asked about his search for meaning. One volunteer complained about her landlord; another kept changing the radio station. Omar enjoyed their company, although he found the painting tedious. He returned the next day because the wall was unfinished, not because he had discovered a new calling.

At the end of the month, a colleague asked whether the leave had changed him. Omar sent a photograph of the room and said he had become slightly better at painting corners. The answer was partly a joke and partly a relief. He still had five months left. They no longer needed to produce a person impressive enough to justify the time away.