Ah yes, two years and after hundreds of posts that I wrote, I finally decided to publish one that I really liked and felt passionate about. I started publishing posts here nearly 8 years ago. It's nice to look back at my writing from the beginning only to confirm that I am still as immature as ever and still find great humor in writing about shit.
For the past 24-36 hours, I kept thinking about the people I have surrounded myself with. My friends, my coworkers, my network and my family. I can't help but think to myself HOLY SHIT, I am one lucky person.
I was compelled to write about this after going to a music event the other night at Brooklyn Steel. As I walked into the venue on Friday night, this girl to my left approached me and asks "Hey are you registered to vote?" I look over and I see this table where she and a few other young people were trying to get people to register to vote. Many of you who know me, know I am adamant on getting our generation politically involved, as well as getting involved within our communities. Here, in the heart of Hipster Brooklyn (I DESPISE YOU, YOU HIPSTERS!! JK...NOT REALLY DOE) was this girl on Friday night working her butt off trying to get young people to register to vote, to make a difference in their communities. I just did not expect to see that going to this show and it just made my night. I am already registered to vote but I wanted to talk to her so I pretended I wasn't. She described her job for this non-profit and what they were trying to accomplish. I thanked her for what she was doing because it is inspired me to want to do more.
I woke up Saturday morning and while driving to my parents house, I kept thinking how awesome it was to see the voting registration booth the night before. I was thinking about how awesome that girl was and then, I was thinking about my friends and thought, wow......my friends are doing incredible things as well. But what kept me in awe was not the final product that we focus on. Example, "I'm a doctor", "I'm an engineer", "I'm a designer", no....what kept me in awe was the journey my friends have taken to get to where they are.
I can write about the journey of all my friends but these are just some that I chose to talk about. My best friend is a doctor. I had to repeat that in my head as I was driving. My best friend....a real person lol, is a doctor. You watch TV and you see doctors doing all types of crazy shit, saving lives, delivering babies, implanting jelly in boobs, it's crazy. My best bud is now going to save lives and has saved lives. But his journey to get there, is what is incredible. His work ethic, sleepless nights, sacrificing partying to study, filling out endless applications, hoping and praying it all works out.
I have another good friend who is getting his masters at an Ivy League School. But to get there, he moved 1,200 miles for his first job to get experience. It's not easy packing up all your shit, moving half away across the country not knowing anyone. But he did that. I have another good friend who does real well for himself. But when he graduated college he worked for free or pretty much minimum wage for a long period of time to get experience. That sacrifice has paid off in dividends. Do you how much pride you have to swallow to work for free or minimum wage while you watch a lot of your friends work and make money? To know you have a 4 year degree but you have to do all this grunt work? But its paid off for him and he's doing real well for himself. For more than a year, I had another friend who went through more personal pain and tragedy than I could ever imagine. But the way she stayed strong and continued to live her life is something I will always be inspired by. Despite the heartache and pain, she persevered, took care of things that needed to be taken care of and still continued her career.
If you're reading this, take a second to look at your journey and pat yourself on the fucking back. Everyone has their own unique story and journey and only you will ever know every heartache, triumph and shit you took to get to where you are. Be proud of that. But at the same time, use it to fuel yourself to be better at what you do. Use it to make a difference. And never stay comfortable. Continue to get out of your comfort zone and continue to learn. I will always cherish my first job out of school. I was in a rotation program that took me to different parts of the country. And what they always preached was "Step Out Of Your Comfort Zone".
Long post as they generally are but I hope you enjoyed it. Look at your journey and the journey of those around you. Cherish them and continue to carve your own path. Live, love, laugh and don't buy the store branded toilet paper unless you like wiping your ass with sandpaper. PEACE!
