The Convenience Of Being Inconvenienced | Real Talk

Good morning ladies and gents of the X-Army, hope you are all doing well. Welcome back to Real Talk, a segment where I provide my own personal opinion on topics I find compelling in our modern world. Today the topic of discussion is The Convenience Of Being Inconvenienced. Do we have certain luxuries anymore? Join me today as I share my view on what’s happening. Let’s get to it!

Having To Develop A New Schedule |

So having spent almost 2 years in a pandemic world, we all had to form and work-around time tables that best suited to situation. We had to go to the grocery stores at different times that encouraged herds of people to bomb-rush a store, we had to make time to work from home and make times for breaks to maintain our mental health, and we had to become antisocial to keep ourselves safe. This change had a massive impact on not just ourselves but the economy also. Small businesses going out of business and everyone resorting to buying their items online. Further isolating ourselves. While this in itself is convenient, this is not what the vast majority of people enjoy. Being used to working in a team setting and having creative ideas to bounce around as a Designer, I had to stay at home and do all things remotely. This is how a lot of people choose to work and it was a wonderful experience, but this is not a preference people prefer. We all had to adjust and find new ways to make the situation tolerable to go from day to day, but looking at this now why are we still being limited? Why are we being trapped to time-frames that does little to help?

Remember Shopping Or Going To The Gym At Random Times? |

I remember the last morning I shopped at Walmart for batteries at 4 a.m. where I was told by an associate that due to the pandemic approaching they are changing up the time to best serve the customers. The time was 7 a.m to 6 p.m. and I understood at the time that they didn’t want people walking around touching things without a mask or whatever the reasoning. So I adjusted my routine to fit a time to buy my weekly rations. The thing I don’t get is that it’s almost 2 years since this happened and yes they changed to the time to 6 a.m., but why can’t a major chain like Walmart go back to 24 hours. That was extremely convenience for people like me who doesn’t enjoy the crowd experience and like to shop in peace. Going from 7 to 6 was a difference, but it is not the change that works for everyone.

Seeing the views at 7 a.m. was an experience. A crap ton of people waiting for the sliding doors to open to get toilet paper and bleach since the legacy media said that’s what was required. I realized then the level of uncleanliness some people are and the mindless behavior seen for cleaning items put things in perspective for me. Either these people never cleaned as much as they should or this is just a over the top reaction to what they think will help. Anyway, the early experience was what I had to do to get food and items I would need, but fast forward to now why are we limited to 6 a.m. when so much has changed? I don’t get it at this point, but it’s between doing this or nothing at all. I don’t buy food often from gas stations unless I am desperate and Walgreens are too expensive for basic items. Hence convenience stores and fees, so I get the hustle. You have to work with the system in place, but if you have things to do a time like this is not beneficial. Believe me, it affects me once a week by cutting my gym time down before the crowd hits its peak.

Speaking of the gym, I found the early performance fascinating. In peak COVID the gym I go to, Planet Fitness, closed for about 2 or so months and I made use of my home gym that I built over the years. When the gyms reopened us members were bombarded with information on cleaning, working out at a distance, and a new time table to follow. Being limited to a 5 a.m. opening, I saw the world in there trying to get through the pandemic. It was good to be back in a like minded community again and seeing gym buddies after months of isolated work outs, but the other people who I don’t like were also there. This lasted for about 3 months before things went back semi-normal. 24/5 as the sign said and I worked with the days I could go at 3 in the morning for a 2 hour session of empty gym peace.

Pushing forward to now, the convenience of a 5 a.m. gym session on a Saturday and Sunday are now gone. I now have to push myself for a Tuesday to Friday 3 a.m. gym session to make up for 2 lost days that I conveniently had a schedule for. My previous plan was Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday 3 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. session before a 1 mile run, now I have to see what I can do. Working out from home is a possibility, but the reason I love the gym is because I get to be apart of my community and like-minded people who are goal oriented. Doing solo sessions at home, even for the short time when the gyms were close, I wasn’t pushed as hard to improve. When I am in the gym I have the motivation to get things done and most important the equipment I don’t have at home that I miss out on.

Now the reasoning for the new change to 7 a.m. on the weekends is for the mental health of the employees and prevention of burnout. I am not going to be soulless and diminish this claim by Planet Fitness, but because I see the condition of the gyms and how messy they are each time I go there…I find this hard to believe. I have seen a rotation of people being hired and fired, one person working over night, and associates not really doing anything. This could just be the gym I am assigned to, but the reason for the time change doesn’t add up. Similar to Walmart, they want to limit access to the compound to not have an influx of people. It’s not convenient on any level and it causes more people to be in one place than intended. Counterproductive comes to mind. Like I said I am not diminishing the mental health claim, but I personally don’t buy it. I have seen a majority of employees not give a damn or are too up themselves to do their job. Regularly I have cleaned trash, moved/locate missing equipment, and worked around a super dusty environment. Fun times.

In Conclusion |

I do miss going to a store at a random time because I may have forgotten a certain item or going to the gym at a time best for me, so the excuses are running thin for me. I understand that sacrifices have to be made for the better health and safety of our fellow man, but for it to take this long for a sense of normality is just plain ridiculous in my opinion. I would have to over spend of basic foods or buy a $60 plus dollar membership to a gym that actually likes people to enjoy convenience. The convenience of being inconvenient is becoming a normality and that is not something we should be used to. We should be able to have access to things that best suits our time table and get on with our lives. With what is in place you have to make adjustments to everything and embrace the discomforts that come. I hope things get back to normal soon and that normality can be restored to what was before. Amen.

Thank you guys for checking out this Real Talk ramble. It’s just me explaining my frustrations of how things are and the inconveniences we are still having to deal with. Take care everyone and please stay tuned for more Xagon content. Take it easy!

Originally published at http://xagonspeaks.wordpress.com on November 20, 2021.