less crazy than the day before
So, I want a new blog title, and the current one, which I started using last week, isn't doing it for me either. If anyone has a new title for me, or really likes "where to begin?" - let me know. I am open to suggestions, inspiration, prophecy.
My brain has been working overtime in the last week trying to make some plans for the next few months. The travel bug has totally taken over my thoughts since I finished a great book strangely titled Foreign Babes in Beijing. It's actually the story of a young American woman's life in Beijing in the '90s and nothing has made me miss China more than this book. It's very insightful, funny, and well-written, and she shares a lot of things that embody why I love Beijing so much.
Anyway, with the frustration at my job I've really been thinking about trying to do something else, and maybe I should give writing a shot. I'm young and have few things to tie me down, I should at least give it a try, right? So I'm thinking to go to China for a week or two, use up my vacation, take some time to think, write, get inspired maybe. When I come back I'll think of what I might write about, think about how that's going to work, take a class, read some books, give it a go. All this sounds just slightly less like crazy talk than it did yesterday, but that's still a great distance from sanity.
Then I started thinking about what I might do to make a little money while I try out this writing thing. And I have to say, the thought of having a job with little or no responsibility makes my heart race with excitement. I can think of so many things that I would love (and be great at) part time. I could waitress, I could be a shift supervisor at Qdoba, I could work in retail, I could work at the post office for God's sake. It's amazing! I know I sound insane, but the parts of my job that make me feel like "the man" (see Restless below, from 9/21) really make me want to be an employee, or just stop working for a corporation altogether, but being an employee is much more realistic. Of course, I am an employee now, but I also have employees, and that's the part that's stealing my soul.
So, we'll see what happens, but I have the feeling that if I do a little traveling, take some classes, give it a shot, I will never regret it. Worst case scenario I'm a total failure and I look for a new job in the restaurant or some other industry after a while. What is there to lose? I know I can't think of anything, can anyone else? Fermin would love to see a less stressed-out version of myself, and he's even offered to pay my part of the bills would I want to go to China for a month or two. I actually just want to go for two weeks, and still figure out a way to go to Mexico, but we'll figure that out later.
So, ideas and ideas, anyone have any for me to rename my blog?
I'm waiting for comments on life and blogging.
posted by Laura @ 8:44 PM
9 Comments:
What about the Rantings & Ravings of..... (Insert some other witty thing there)... Wow. my ideas suck. Thanks for checking out my Blog :o) seeing your comment made me slightly confused, then i realised where it came from :)
Laura:
I'd like to offer a few miscellaneous thoughts I have regarding your last few blogs.
1. I know what it's like to have a job you don't like. It's been that way for me for the past 8 years (but not for the first 25), and I'm at the point where I really really want to retire. I've been hanging on because of financial reasons and because I don't want to start over at my age. However, in retrospect, I sometimes wonder if I would have been better off to have moved on 8 years ago - a tough choice when pension, vacation, and other benefits accrued over many years are at risk. This is my long way of saying that there is absolutley no reason for someone young and unencumbered to stay in a job they don't enjoy.
2. If you want to travel and wander and see the world, that's all well and good, and this is the best time of your life to do it. On the other hand, there's nothing wrong with having a job you enjoy, around people you like and respect, even if it is in a Corporation.
3. You sometimes talk about corporations as if they are evil. They are not. Corporations are just people, some good, some bad. They provide jobs, health care, pensions, they pay taxes, they pay into social security, they provide afforadable products for all of us. People in corporations do a lot more good for a lot more people than the thousands of people who choose to drop out of school, get pregnant without getting married, not get jobs, and then complain when government (which is us) does not give them enough.
4. I guess to wrap this up, my advice would be to look around for a job that that you can enjoy, as opposed to wandering around searching for yourself. The best time to find a job is when you have one; i.e., most employers will be more reluctant to hire someone who has not been working for awhile, compared to someone who has.
Also, you have two relatives who work in the reporting arena, who you could ask for advice, even though you don't know them well. One is your cousin John, who is a reporter for a Christian radio station, and he travels all over the world doing writing and reporting. The other is my cousin, who is a reporter for NPR. If you'd like to contact these folks for some advice, I'd be glad to facilitate it, or I could get you their email addresses, and you could contact them directly if you'd like.
How about 'meandering down the road of life'...OR 'why clowns freak me out'...OR 'is there a better place?'
Also amen on wanting to be part of something that you find meaningful and longing for something more. That is one thing that I love about my job is that at least on most days I think I am part of something more and I am frustrated on behalf of our culture as a whole for how little we are often willing to settle for.
Hmm.. thanks Jon for the suggestions - "why clowns freak me out" is my personal favorite. The thing is, I am waiting to hear the perfect phrase, and I haven't heard it yet, so I'll just wait until it comes to me. If anyone has an idea of what it is, please make a comment.
In response to Jack (my dad) - I am very cynical right now, but I haven't turned into a hippie. Most of what I consume (ie. buy) comes from a corporation. I know I will probably work for a corporation, but I shouldn't do something that makes me feel guilty (ie. be an employer who is forced (by reasons of budget, etc) to pay people lower wages than they deserve while making them do unreasonable amounts of work). Basically, I don't want to become a bitter, soul-less, burn-out before I am 30 and wonder why I did it.
I do have to say that corporations seem to be becoming less responsible with every year. You comment that they provide pensions, health care, pay taxes, etc etc. They do contribute to society, but the liklihood of someone my age finding a job that provides good wages, affordable health care and especially a pension is significantly less likely than it was when you were in your 20s.
With all due respect, there are many people who simply don't have the resources to go to college. They aren't all high school drop-outs with babies who can't hold down jobs. I love the people who work for me but I have met enough diverse people from difficult backgrounds in my few years in restaurants to know better than to make generalizations about how they came into their situations. Not everyone has good parents who treat them well and provide for them. The fact that they grow up and don't all become highly motivated, productive members of the corporate world (or society in general) isn't completely their fault, just like the fact that I am well-adjusted and reasonably successful cannot is not completely the result of my own efforts. It's also the result of my background and surroundings.
This is becoming its own blog, so I'll stop now.
because i'm short on time, but because i really like the idea of creating new blogging titles, i'll throw mine into the ring ...
honestly, i loved "why clowns freak me out," but thought that it might be perhaps more appropriate to laura to say "why balloons freak me out." i still chuckle to think of your great dislike of balloons. ha ha ha.
so maybe "up, up and away in my beautiful balloon" is a good one.
or what about "more than hot air"?
i know you're waiting for el titulo perfecto, for something to stike a chord, but i promise i'll read your blog no matter what. even if your title totally sucks. i still really really like you.
:)
Thank You Laura for your comments:
With all due respect, there are many people who simply don't have the resources to go to college. They aren't all high school drop-outs with babies who can't hold down jobs. I love the people who work for me but I have met enough diverse people from difficult backgrounds in my few years in restaurants to know better than to make generalizations about how they came into their situations. Not everyone has good parents who treat them well and provide for them. The fact that they grow up and don't all become highly motivated, productive members of the corporate world (or society in general) isn't completely their fault, just like the fact that I am well-adjusted and reasonably successful cannot is not completely the result of my own efforts. It's also the result of my background and surroundings.
Happy to see you're not thinking in black & white generalizations.
I don't really understand this last comment. They anonomously quoted my earlier comment and then said I hadn't made black or white generalizations - if you are out there, please expound!
alright friend. time to reveal your new title ... AND a new entry :)
I had a bunch of really awesome names the first time I tried to leave a comment but they seem to have evaded me for this second attempt. But this list will have to do.
I actually like the name of this post as the name for a blog... but here is my 5cents worth just for fun:
Carte Blanche
Five Thousand Words or Less
There is no box
Better than Goggle
Waiting on Today
Spilt Milk & Chocolate Cake
Table for two?
....and if you don't choose mine, I’m never ever going to read you blog again. J/k… just don’t sell them on eBay.
Post a Comment
<< Home