“This is an ancient human social construct that once was common in this land. We called it a community. We lived among our villagers, depending on them for what we needed. If we had a problem, we did not discuss it over the phone with someone in Bhubaneswar. We went to a neighbor. We acquired food from farmers. We listened to music in groups, in churches or on front porches. We danced. We participated. Even when there was no money in it. Community is our native state. You play hardest for a hometown crowd. You become your best self. You know joy. This is not a guess; there is evidence. The scholars who study social well-being can put it on charts and graphs. In the last 30 years our material wealth has increased in this country, but our self-described happiness has steadily declined. Elsewhere, the people who consider themselves very happy are not in the very poorest nations, as you might guess, nor in the very richest. The winners are Mexico, Ireland, Puerto Rico, the kinds of places we identify with extended family, noisy villages, a lot of dancing. The happiest people are the ones with the most community.” — Barbara Kingsolver, Your Money or Your Life, Commencement address at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA, May 11, 2008
(via gleeky)
exists as pictures, videos, memories. And…answer after the jump.
If you were to ask me what I thought about my job, I would say I don’t like it. If you catch me at the wrong time, I would say I hate it. I never feel like I’m making a difference. I mean I’m basically doing technician labwork that, in my opinion, I could have done right out of high school. Why even work there with a degree? I wasn’t being trained to the best of my abilities and I let it show. I wasn’t exactly working at 100% efficiency all the time. And don’t get me started on my supposed “boss” but I’ll throw out narcissistic, inconsiderate, insincere, controlling micromanager who was training me to be his bitch for life, not training me to be an engineer.
There were times I wanted to quit and run away, but I stayed for the typical reason of keeping a salaried position. I had a job and I make good money so I should be happy, right? Well these weren’t happy times for me. I’d go to work, go home, workout, watch TV, surf the Internet, go to sleep, and do it all over again the next day. Was this all there was to life?
What do you do to change this? I started reading books. A lot. More than I ever read in my life up to that point. I found a goal I wanted to pursue, and I read more about it. But then doubt starts to creep in. My goal was not as easy as it seemed. It may take longer than I estimated. Not a lot of people have done it before, it’s not the normal thing to do, how am I going to do it? Paralysis by analysis.
But I persisted. I found inspiration in people I read about. Stories not heard on the news but found by continued exploration. I looked back at my calculations and integrated this new found information and the projections look better. I decided I’m going to do this.
And then a “Gift from God.” Our Group President calls me to his office. Performance bonus. Really? For me? Our company exceeded sales targets so we all got bonuses. This remind me of my first evaluation as the Financial Coordinator of Samahang. I accepted a position nobody wanted and was setting up systems to prevent the occurrence of previous problems. I haven’t even fundraised a single dollar yet, but everybody was telling me I was doing such a great job. I felt like I couldn’t let them down. So it gave me this drive to do better than I had been doing. Long story short, I stabilized Samahang’s financial situation, and I hope that’s still the case today. Ok I digress, but the same feelings came through when I looked at that bonus check. I can do better than this. I can’t let the President down. I don’t want to be the problem.
This week has been a whole bunch of good feelings. If anything the bonus will help me reach my goal faster. I have a renewed sense of purpose at my job. I began to see that it’s not that bad. I don’t work for that “boss” anymore. I do get to interact with upper management. I write lab reports that they read, so I have to do my best. Today I sat in on my first conference call. I feel like I’m actually helping out. Sometimes it still sucks. Change is slow, but things are progressing.
This also reminds me of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Will Smith’s character decides he’s going to become a stockbroker. With barely any money and no home to take care of his kid, he interns without pay and after that rushes to the homeless shelter to try to get a room for the night. When they don’t get a room, they sleep in a BART Station bathroom. Life sucks. But they survive and he studies hard for the job. He’s finally able to fix his last portable bone-density scanner and sell it. This is the turning point of the movie. For once they don’t have to rush to the homeless shelter. They can stay in a hotel. You get the feeling that everything’s going to be alright. He’s eventually offered a position at Dean Witter and he goes on to become a multi-millionaire.
The problem with long term goals is that we don’t know how they’ll turn out. As with investing, the only sure way to know if your strategy is sound is by doing it for 5, 10, or 20 years, look back, and analyze the results. The important things are to get started, keep moving, keep doing, and learn from your experiences. We all have realistic goals that we want to achieve. With the persistent desire and dedication to get it done, we can have faith that everything’s going to be alright.
It’s hard to beat a guy when he’s got his mind made up that he’s going to win.
-Muhammad Ali
I’m on my way. Who wants to come along on the journey?
Finally ate at Five Guys, an East Coast burger chain expanding over to the West Coast. My brother and our friend Mike, the closest people I know to being burger cognoscenti, think it’s the best burgers around. Even better than In-N-Out. Well that’s something I have to try.
I got a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, mayo, and ketchup. Basically this is a burger that is most comparable to a Famous Star with no cheese at Carl’s Jr. However, the grill onions aren’t the same as the onions on the Famous Star, and the Five Guys standard burger has 2 meat patties. I have to say, the burger is good. The taste is subtle. They cook their meat patties in peanut oil, that’s the main difference. The beef seem to be of a higher quality, so I’ve been told that they aren’t cookie cutter frozen burger patties.
The best double cheeseburger I ever had was in the cafeteria of Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach. Tasting my brother’s Five Guys cheeseburger gave a similar flavor. It’s all about the peanut oil.
What hurts Five Guys though, is they have no special sauce. Yes, you can elect to put BBQ sauce or steak sauce on your burger, but they have no Five Guys sauce. They probably didn’t put enough ketchup and mayonnaise on mine to compensate for the lack of a special sauce. Thus, it is not fair to compare Five Guys to In-N-Out. Apples and oranges. I mean, who would get an In-N-Out burger without the spread? That’s like playing Mario Kart without the special item boxes.
All in all though, a good burger, even if a little bit pricier than normal fast food.
Sorry I don’t have any pictures, I ate it before I had any thoughts of writing this.
j0anne: 20 Financial Milestones You Want to Reach in Your 20s -
by RJ from Gen Y Wealth
The journey from your first paycheck to the time you reach thirty, is the most important time of your life for accumulating wealth. Wouldn’t it be great if there were defined milestones, to make sure you’re on the right path?
From my experience, there are. I have…
If there’s anything to make me restart my use of this web log, it would be a personal finance article. I’m actually doing pretty well as far this list is concerned, but I still got a long way to go on the journey.
(Source: alicejetaime)
Very interesting and unadultered article about Manny.
Judge orders UC to repay $38 million in student fees -
Unfortunately not what undergraduate students are hoping for. This one is for some graduate students.
);because we all badly need a hug sometimes…
nice
Why do I see myself? :(
awwwwwh<3
if ony that was possible :/
): i wish ..
sweet
It’s always better in person.