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blenderheadandtheivy
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Name: Holly
Gender: Female
Interests: earning gainful employment as a writer/reporter/editor, music, film, cooking, travel, dancing
Expertise: armchair psychology, procrastination
Occupation: student/freelancer
Industry: neither porn nor silver mining
Message: message me
Member Since:
10/1/2006
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| Even though I don't quite believe that the people who are now in possession of my resume after last week's career fair have the time to go web searching for me, apparently it happens. And prospective employers (and current employers) pass a lot of judgment based on the babble we put out on the internet.
So in the interest of not saying something I shouldn't in a public forum, I think it would be wise for me to discontinue blogging in an environment where anyone can read it. For my personal thoughts, I invite friends (although I think only two people read this) to join my myspace network. Just search for me by name. My page is private. Friend request me and if I actually know and like you, we'll be myspace friends.
Additionally within the next week, I'm starting as an official blogger at beepcentral.com. So catch my stories and views on dating, love, etc. there.
So that's all. Thanks.
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| Part One: Scary
As a masters candidate at arguably the best journalism school in the country, I get disturbed when I receive an email from my professor that refers to the "Supper Bowel." This is the same professor whose syllabus informs us that "deadlines are secret." Now, I can forgive typos (actually, who are we kidding, I'm a bitch about them), and I know she's my graphics and design professor, but still, the least I expect from the people educating me is that they spell things correctly.
Part Two: Annoying
I'm in the final stages of revising an article on a local company, and I cannot wait for it to be completely over because the public relations woman deserves a kick in the hind parts. She wanted me to forward her my questions ahead of time and she wanted me to contact her before I contacted any of the company's clients. She said no other reporter had ever not contacted her first, even though she sent me the bloody client list in the first place. Let me make this very clear. When I'm interviewing a subject, I'm in charge. I run the show. I wear the big girl pants. They don't tell me how to do my job.
Part Three: Touching
Just when you think chivalry may be dead, someone shows you otherwise. My class went on a little field trip the other day and the room we were seated in for a presentation was two chairs short - me and another woman were left standing. Or would have been, but two of the men in the class gave up their chairs for us and waited until someone was able to bring in extras. Then after the presentation when I thanked the guy who had offered me his seat, he apologized for not having stood up sooner. Gentlemen, I tell you, they still exist. Learn from this, young men! It will be appreciated. Part Four: Bizzare A guy in my class high-fived me and told me "good job" because I have mascara on.
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| Ah, Reality Bites...the joyful movie that made slacker life in your
early 20s look awesome at 13, mocked us at 22 and allows us to be smug
at 27. 1993...the days when plaid flannel and greasy hair was hot as
hell. I love it.
But at 2:15 in the morning, researching the
real estate market (hello, self-inflicted academic death warrant) and
listening/watching the classic teaming of Hawke and Ryder on Netflix, I
come across a profound question. Read, if you will, this deep and
provoking quote:
"I am not under any orders to make the world a better place."
So
friends, after a few years of real-worlding it, riddle me this: are
you? Are you under any orders to make the world a better place? Why or
why not?
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| "We had wonderful
times but terrible timing."
- Edwin McCain, Sorry to a Friend
So much music and literature
eludes to the concept of time and the importance of timing things
correctly in your life and I think it's so true. I'm certainly no saint
about sticking to a schedule and I don't give a huge amount of credit
to Society, but overall I think much of the generally accepted timeline
is probably pretty smart.
Acceleration, while it might sound
impressive, probably is not. Let's say in theory that you know a 14
year old who is so smart she could graduate high school and be accepted
into college. Good for her. And good for you too. But what sort of
experience is a 14-year-old going to have at a university being among
people either approaching or in their twenties? If someone is
academically savvy enough to skip a grade - okay, one grade is fine.
But no more.
On the academic acceleration note, I really don't
believe in the GED unless it's absolutely necessary. Just wanting to
move on isn't a good reason. There is a certain time in one's life to
be in high school, be in college, etc.
So often we hear about
"kids growing up too fast" and I agree. The whole concept can really be
summed up in two words: teen pregnancy. I know some people who became
parents as teenagers and while I applaud anyone who steps up to raise
their kids, I'm sorry but a 17-year-old probably should not be raising
a child. I'm a relatively new resident of the Midwest and while Chicago
is a pretty damn cosmopolitan area, the region as a whole probably has
a pretty high rate of young parents, even people under 25. I realize
that goes outside of the realm of teenager, but even early 20s is
probably too young for the general population to be spewing out
children. If there are people in the high school - college age range
having babies, I just see that as a sign that there isn't enough sex
education present.
Of course, I'm probably just bitter that
they have babies and I don't. I
always thought I'd have my first child around 28 or 29. But let's
review the facts. I turned 27 yesterday. I'm not married (yes, I want
to be married before I have kids, call me old fashioned), I'm a grad
student with no promise of a job, my longterm partner is a grad student
in the first year of a three year program, we have loans.... yeah, no
baby in the next two years, at least not by choice.
Let's see what else I don't believe in...
People
right out of college making a ton of money that they don't need (insert
my bitterness here again). I'm sorry, but it's wrong that someone in
her 50s makes $12 an hour while a 22-year-old makes $150k.
I
can't think of other specific examples right now, but just generally
skipping steps. Bob Dylan said "may you build a ladder to the stars and
climb on every rung" and while I don't necessarily need to "stay
forever young" I do think that it's good to experience each step of the
way. Life is not a DVD. There's no fast-forward, no pause button, no
loop play and no rewind. You need to go through every scene, even the sucky ones.
On the rewind note, while I don't
like acceleration, I also don't enjoy lingering. I feel like I do that
a lot and frankly it sucks. If you'd talked to me 10 years ago I would
have sworn up and down that by 27 I would own a sofa. And, you know, have other stuff as well, but we won't go into that. I do have a
sofa, actually, but it came with the university-owned apartment I live
in and it stays here when I go. It's okay, it's kind of ugly
anyway.
But let's get off me. General lingering and this whole forever
young, extend your 20s for as long as you can thing just doesn't work
for me. Some generally distasteful examples:
- people in their 30s hitting on college students
- women over 35 in tube tops or mini-skirts (men too)
-
anyone in their 30s and 40s who stays in a hostel when they travel not
because they can't afford a regular hotel but because they want to meet
cool new friends
And there's the other side of the baby coin.
There is a reason that "the man in the clouds," as George Carlin calls
him, invented menopause and lowered sperm counts. It's because having
babies in your 60s is a bad freakin' idea. If you are entering your
adult diaper years before your kids reach the age of majority, you
waited too damn long and probably should have just bought a parakeet.
Of
course there are things about my life that would put me in this sort of
productivity retardation category, but I'm not "getting psyched" about
$2 pitchers of Miller Lite, so there's that.
The point to this
whole diatribe is that people should do things in the general region of
when they are supposed to be done because that is probably the way to
yield the best results. Of course, there are other factors but a good
sense of timing and even time management (another lovely monkey on my
back and possibly yours too) is probably a good practice. Line that up
with some perspective, good humor, tolerance, positive thinking and
plain dumb luck and you might be able to make a pretty damn good life
for yourself. Rick Springfield said "If the timing's right and the gods are with you, something special happens."
Of
course, he also said "I wish that I had Jesse's girl," so apparently
that didn't always work out for him. You think that it was more timing
or the gods that were on good old Jesse's side? And really, was his girl that hot?
The questions life throws at us....
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