a New Year- combining the old with the new you
A new year for me means glancing, not harping back, to the past. 2009 was a year of uprooting myself into NYC and finally finding my footing. Whether it be employment, a lateral job move, or simply recognition and validation of a job well done, persistence and tenacity drives New Yorkers to continually strive for career success. But what about those other life-happiness factors? Are they lost in the pace of the city? When all the focus is placed on securing the ground below me, these blinders make it difficult to see the entirety of the city- all the minute details that make notable contributions. Or the wholeness of me, all the little details that afford me sanity.
A typical day in the city doesn’t allow for much self-reflection…at all. Commuting to and from work, swamped with the daily office bustle, rushing to fulfill the mundane but necessary errands that seem to take up way more time than they should. Life is never boring or idle, that’s for sure, but somehow just always busy. The energy of New York is evident in the dwellers of the city but when everyone is so doggedly looking for something, satisfaction in a mission accomplished needs to not be the end all and be all.
What it takes is someone or something to jerk me out of my bubble, my by-now comforted routine, and remind me of what it is that completes me. Meeting someone whose lifestyle doesn’t mirror mine in any way makes me realize what I am drawn to, in myself and in others, and that I should be embracing these qualities. Work is a lot of things- though it certainly is not a reflection of me, or my complete interests. Refreshingly, my job does not at all stem directly from my studies in college- but engaging with literature, writing, are parts of my life that add to me, that I must make time for, not merely pass off as interests of my past.
The typical “where do you work/what do you do” seems to be the defining characteristic about a person and while we can’t stop others from jumping to the assumption that ‘our job title’ is equivalent to ‘ourselves’, it’s up to us to let this not be true. So here’s to 2010- to reading, to writing, to individual delights and mannerisms that might be outside the norm, outside of what’s commended and recognized as a measure of success. After all, these are the quirks, habits, thoughts, that characterize us- that make us remarkably different- even if the whole world isn’t aware of them.
