Defining
the Dash
I've been
fortunate to only have to attend a few funerals in my lifetime and spent
limited time in cemeteries, but I've still seen grave sites of my fathers
parents. Generally made of various stones, their full names, a quote or
favorite phrase, and the dates of their time on this planet. Those dates are
where I decided upon the title for this blog. The years are important but they
are not what defines the person buried there.
The people that attend the funerals and visit the sites remember the
time in between the birth and death of their loved ones. The dash between the
years is what makes everyone different and interesting. Having just graduated
from college there still isn't much to say about my dash; I've made a lot of
great friends, had a chaotic family, been involved in some great organizations
and had a lot of laughs along the way. All of those these things have brought
me this point in my life of a new career and an immense amount of freedom and
potential.
Tomorrow
is when it all begins, I start my first postgraduate position. And while it is only training for our first
five weeks in Rhode Island it will give me a pretty good picture of what I can
expect once I return to California. I'm still not very what exactly I will
doing with my new role but I'm going to hope that I can get more of an idea
throughout training. My training will most likely be fairly intensive based off
of the material asked in my interview and what I am expecting to do in my
position.
So much
of this next year will be entirely new experiences, goals, and relationships. I
think it will be really good for me to be forced out of my comfort zone as far
as locations and challenges. I adjusted well in high school and college to the
different obstacles and found amazing people to surround myself with. My move
out to California will be an entirely new environment which has the potential
to completely start over and change who I am, but I still like who I've been
for most of my life. I would prefer to preserve the personality and lifestyle
that I've grown comfortable with because it has worked well and gotten me to
this point. Of course there are a few things I would like to improve upon
because few things scare me more than monotony or boredom (contradictory to my
dedication to daily life routines) so I want to continue to challenge myself to
continue to evolve. I have become good at rising to various challenges I am
faced with in my personal and professional life, and I know that there will be
newer and more difficult obstacles.
There are
some things I would like to preserve about myself in my coming career and a few
areas in which I know I need to make some improvements. I'm going to take the approach of writing
down goals solidifies them and hopefully encourages follow through.
Continuity:
1) Sense of Humor- I have always
been surrounded by other people that don't take themselves too seriously. They
can achieve great things, but have a blast in the process. I do not want to
become a stiff person because of work that becomes boring and only talks about
work. Making jokes and entertaining will always be fun, if I can't laugh at
myself then no one else can.
2) Love of Smiling- this is
something that has often been my most identifiable trait. Smiling is fun,
approachable, and can diffuse many intense situations. I feel comfortable
behind my big smile and hope that it never goes away.
3) Need for Nothing Nights- Fuego
queso nights, Little Caesars pizza nights, movie nights, weekends where I watch
an entire series in a weekend. Nothing Nights are some of my favorite things to
do by myself or with other friends who have an affinity for cheap and stress
free evenings. They are easy to do and take nearly no effort or planning. After
a long week of meetings or rehearsals there are few things that I enjoy more.
4) Comfort in Stupidity- I've
never had much of a problem laughing at myself or doing embarrassing things. I
love to belt it out in my car as a stress release or do a little dancing as I
get ready in the morning. I'm not much of a "cool" guy, the different
and weird group has always been my scene.
1) Take better care of my body- I
have been lucky this far in my life to remain thin. It's not something I have
had to work at with extensive effort, which I know will change in the coming
years. I need to provide my body with better and more food; less preservatives,
better nutrients, a greater variety, and proper fuel for working out. Bodies
apparently require a significant amount of sleep. My last semester I was
sleeping an acceptable amount and I would like to continue this trend. Sleeping
better will do wonders for my immune system, provide time for my body to
recover from workouts, and allow me to be focused and productive during work.
2) Accept the things I cannot
change- the opportunity to move out to the west coast will force me to make
communication with my family and friends in other parts of the country. I need
to learn to accept other people's decisions as their own and know that it is
not my responsibility to ensure they are making the decision I believe is best.
There are many things I disagree with that my family or friends may choose but
I do not need to be involved with that decision.
3) Social Awareness- I've been
through two elections with the right to vote and have paid little attention to
the views and stances of the candidates. In political matters I've taken an
uninformed approach which just isn't the way I should exercise my rights as a
free citizens. There have been many situations in which I do not know about
large current events because they have to do with politics or economics. I want
to be able to be involved in conversations surrounding these areas.
4) Faith- within the past few
months I have started attending weekly church service with some friends in
College Station. It was slightly forced in the beginning, for not many other
reasons than my awkwardness and getting up "early" on a Sunday.
Towards the end I learned to really enjoy the messages of the pastors. I still
don't think I believe in much at this point, but if anything the messages are a
positive moral approach to daily life. Especially in a new area I think that it
will be a nice place to meet people that are strong in their faith to help me
or others that are working on finding exactly what works for them. Meeting
people in my new area will be a difficult process so I figure its best to meet
new friends in good places like the gym or church.
I'm not sure if I will keep up with making posts because
this felt a little awkward. The more people that read it could make this more
awkward. I came up with the idea for the title "Defining the Dash"
for the title of my future self help book that I'll never get around to writing
so I figured I would write this as a means of documenting this time in my life.
I know I will be a huge challenge, the greatest to date, with a lot of ups and
downs but I feel very at peace with where I am and will be in the immediate
future. California will be a totally new opportunity for friends and
experiences that I'm looking forward to facing.
