Spring and the Crankiness of Growing Older

Yesterday I had an incredibly busy day of researching the early 20th century in the local library, walking down a grassy street median and taking photos of the crocuses and squills, then cycling off to Prenzlauer Berg to look into a job opportunity.

It was dry, intermittently sunny, and I also enjoyed the trip to Prenzlauer Berg. It wasn't bombed as heavily during World War II as other parts of the city, so there are unbroken residential apartment building façades from around the 1850s to the 1920s. Besides the remnants of the gigantic Bötzow beer brewery are very impressive, if dipped in 80s/90s style swathes of graffiti along one wall. It was also the evening for day care centres, so children were toddling around hand in hand with parents and endearingly squawking, and it lent life to the otherwise formal and occasionally brooding architecture.

But I was so exhausted this morning that I slept in and decided to skip volunteering today, which I've begun to do again near the Siegessäule also because I badly need a routine and contact with other people again.

At home I've tended to be a bit cranky lately.

I've been constantly losing pieces of the feeling of having two parents over the past six years. After a while I'm just tired of facing new challenge after new challenge, feeling bound to fail because I'm no longer shielded and supported as I used to be. Even small things are symbols, and I no longer want to suffer unresistingly and quietly as they disappear one by one.

In general being the eldest sibling comes with a crushing sense of responsibility. A lot of older relatives have died and it feels as if entire generations can disappear in the wink of an eye. The 'work family' has also disintegrated to a large degree.

So since my dad died I'm clinging to totems to help me cope. I like to wear his sweater or have a few of his things around me.

Besides the feeling of support and (to be honest) having several (unfairly burdened) people standing between me and a few of the truths of adulthood, I miss his quality of listening to me explain the things that scare me, even if they don't seem very logical. Right now it feels likelier that I'm ridiculed for mentioning them.

Anyway, the best escape at present is the exhilaration of observing protests and of ducking into courtyards and alleys to do journalistic or historical research. Then I feel quite strong and free, and like I am sufficient.