Friday, May 3, 2013

Starting Over... Again

I have now been working for a year and 5 months. Doesn't seem like too long, but it does. I think it's because in that short time, I've been employed thrice already. Not exactly the track record a regular boss would trust eh?

But then again, I'm no stranger to starting over. I spent a year in another course before entering art school, where I found out that I'm not really made for it. Hence, my 4 years spent honing my visual design skills have been essentially wasted. It now gets kind of annoying to remember that, especially when people point out that a copywriter shouldn't be critiquing design. (Even if I do have SOME idea of how the visuals should look.)

I guess I can't blame them. Society loves putting tags on us to make everything seem simpler. It rarely is.

What I do know to be simple enough (at least for me) is starting over. It's a luxury that not everyone has. To some, it's just something they're not willing to do. I find it disheartening at times, especially when I see talented people too afraid to leave their comfort zones.

"Don't you realize how much you're wasting your life here?" is one thing that I often think, but never say to these people. Because it is a) arrogant of me to do so, (b) not something I have to say if they really aspire to be more.

In a perfect world, we'd all have unlimited opportunities to be everything we wish to be. In there, I might finally be able to decide if I really want to be a novelist, a comic book writer, a movie critic, or a film director. Maybe even all of them, if I would be so lucky.

Too bad real life doesn't work that way. There's just not enough time to be indecisive. You either stick with something and learn to either love it or despise it, or you keep trying until you find it.

I believe I have been lucky lately. I've been getting nice breaks and seeing the changes that a different environment and radical (but likable) people bring. I think I've finally started walking towards the path I want, even if it's still not too clear to me yet.

I guess what they say is true, you do get luckier when you work harder. It seems like the universe isn't always a huge bitch, as she will occasionally recognize your efforts and throw you a bone if you work hard (and smart) enough.

That's why I never underestimate luck. It is something that most successful people downplay, because it kind of implies that they didn't totally deserve prosperity. I think that is not true. Everyone who's ever succeeded needed luck to do so. But the difference between them and the average person is that they do not rely on it. They just work hard, play it smart, and let luck take care of the rest. For them, good luck is only a welcome result, not a crucial ingredient.

I just hope I keep getting lucky. I wish to never get tired of starting over. It might be crazy for me to think like this, but the people who change the world are never completely sane. Now I have no delusions about being a game-changer, but I do know I have a good amount of crazy in me. And while it backfires on me occasionally, I've been slowly learning how to channel it into more productive means. And it is starting to pay off, I can feel it.

That's the beauty of starting over. You get to see things in a different light. You learn from your past mistakes. You realize that you still learned some fairly useful stuff from the suckiness of your former jobs. And you experience new things you otherwise wouldn't have if you had kept on going the same path.

So when you feel like you're not getting the most out of your life, or not living up to your potential, do consider starting over. You owe yourself that chance. Whether or not you believe that is entirely up to you.







2 comments:

  1. And my decision to make you my favorite food writer has been sealed. Excellent posts. Thank you for sharing your words. Keep on writing! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there! Thanks for dropping by. But I'm hardly a food writer. I'm just a guy who loves to write about anything while finding a way to put in crude jokes. :)

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