Back to the Grind: A Security Guard's Return from Vacation

The first shift back always hits different. You spend a week living like a normal person, sleeping past sunrise, wearing whatever you want, forgetting what a flashlight feels like on your hip. Then Sunday morning rolls around, and you're laying out the uniform again, charging the radio, setting three alarms because you don't trust yourself anymore.

Sunday morning comes too fast. The site looks the same as you left it, but somehow unfamiliar. You walk the perimeter like you're learning it again, even though you could do it blindfolded. Your replacement did fine, nothing burned down, nobody broke in, but you still check everything twice. It's just what you do.

The coffee tastes worse than you remembered. The chair in the security office feels harder. That one flickering hallway light that maintenance still hasn't fixed? Still flickering.

But something shifts around hour three. Your body remembers the rhythm. Your brain stops fighting the boredom and settles into that alert-but-patient state that makes an effective guard. You catch yourself actually caring again when someone tries to tailgate through the employee entrance. You're back in it.

The truth is, vacation makes you appreciate the job more, even if you'd never admit it out loud. There's something steady about this work. You know what's expected. You know your rounds, your responsibilities, your role. While you were gone, the world kept spinning, but this building, your post, was waiting for you.

A coworker stops by, asks how the time off was. "Too short," you say, because that's what you're supposed to say. But you're already thinking about the next one, already counting down. That's how you survive the grind.

One shift down. Many more this week. Then you do it all again.