Tom

Tom's the guy that sells the Big Issue at Marylebone station. Well, I think his name's Tom, I hope I heard right. For the past few weeks, he's been standing there, every morning, as grumpy Rondoners walk past him without a glance. "BIG ISSUE! No? Have a good day Maam/Sir!" and Tom means it.

Lately, I get up every morning, and lie in bed thinking, "I really don't want to go to work today". I hide under my duvet (C, are you proud I didn't say "doona"? :) ) until the very last moment. When it's 8.05am, I know I have to get my butt into gear. I sit at my desk and I count down the hours. When it hits 4:30pm, I'm counting down the minutes till 5pm. When I get home, I'm reluctant to talk about work because it's been sh*tty. You'll notice I don't usually blog about work either.

Tom sees people get off the trains every morning. He says they look grumpy, some of them hate their jobs, hate coming into Rondon, and hate their incomes. Basically, he sees people like me. I stand in the bus lines when it's too cold/wet to walk to work, earphones plugged in, with a frown for the long day ahead. So Tom's trying to bring a smile to people's faces every morning. Strangely, it works :) I watch Tom at work, and he's got soo much enthusiasm for selling the Big Issue, that it made me smile. Heck, I bought one and I haven't read it yet.

This morning, I got Tom a latte, and had a chat. Here's a guy, down on his luck, making a living out of selling the Big Issue. He's homeless, and he wants to save up for his own place. Considering he only gets 80p out of every £1.50 magazine he sells, it's going to take him awhile.

Yet, he's the most optimistic person I've met in a long time. There's no lesson here. I just hope I don't have to lose it all in order to have Tom's optimism in life. I've seen a lot of things in life. I've moved to Rondon. I've had opportunities my parents and other kids in my extended family didn't. What exactly does it take for me to be happy or content?