Monday, February 27, 2012

Things that are Surprising.

Here are some things that surprised me today:

1. I found an open wireless internet connection while sitting on the West Couch in my Grandparents' living room. I felt like this sort of occasion warranted a blog post. Also, I feel like I should never move. Until my battery dies, of course. Then I will be forced to risk it all and venture toward an outlet.

2. I just looked down at my finger and saw that I was bleeding! Not a lot, mind you, but don't you find those sorts of things to be odd? I never even felt anything! My skin must really be able to tolerate a lot of pain. (But don't test me, I cry easy.)

That's all! These are not really life insights, but I can't be revelatory all the time. Every once in a great while, I'm just an ordinary gal who finds non-password-protected wireless connections and nicks her finger. Who knew!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Passionize Your Life!

So, does anyone know the phone number or email address to the US Patent Office? Because I've got a really great idea for a new word. Or maybe I just have to tweet at Webster's Dictionary (surely they're on Twitter, right?) Either way, I'm claiming rights to my new addition to the lexicon: Passionize! It's not a word already, and I know that because, well, I just do, and also there is a little red dotted line under it as I type this. Ergo, I have invented it! It came to me a couple nights ago as I was falling asleep and I thought, "I gotta get that on the blog." Then I proceeded to have a dream about a being on a bus driving through the mountains and flipping upside down. Clearly, my subconscious isn't on board yet.

But my regular conscious is, and here's why. How many times have you heard a depressing statistic about our generation and how hard it is to find a job? Or how many of us are still living with/dependent on our parents? Or, even worse, how we're little whiners because we refuse to work at McDonald's? Yeah, we've seen this recession spun in every single angle possible. And it all either ends up looking gloomy for us for the next decade, or we end up being criticized because we've been taught to have high goals and get upset when we can't reach them. But what we haven't heard about yet is that while this is all going on, we can still passionize our lives.

I'm definitely not going to sit here and preach about only settling for your dream job, because frankly, that's just not realistic for most of us. But believe it or not, your job is not your life. Neither is your relationship (or lack thereof.) Neither are your hobbies, the social media you're addicted to, or the shenanigans you get up to on the weekends. None of these things in and of itself is going to fulfill you and complete you. They're all part of a whole life you've got. And when you feel gloomy about the next ten years of interning because that's the best thing you can find (or any of those other life components), you've got to passionize something.

I guess I should explain: Passionize = Passion + Energy. They're sort of the same thing, but not exactly. I don't really want to get annoying and just talk semantics here, but the whole idea is that whatever you put your energy into should make you feel passionate. And whatever makes you feel passionate should fill you with energy. I know I spend so much of my day doing things that I'm not passionate about and that drain me of all the energy I have. I'm not even doing hard work! Like, if I were lifting bricks all day and carrying them for miles, I'd have a legitimate reason to be tired at the end of the day. Instead, I have a pretty decent part-time administrative position, I teach a class, take a class, etc. None of these things is physically draining, and yet I've found that I'm always so tired. I need to passionize my life! Or a little part of it, at least. I need to find something that makes me excited, that I look forward to, that I feel strongly (passionately!) about.

I'm not sure what that thing is yet. I just invented this word two days ago, so it might take me a while to brainstorm. But I hope that if you're feeling like I do, you can find some way to passionize your life too. I think it's imperative that we do. How else are we going to survive 10 years of working our way out of a recession? Yeah, we've got to do things we might not want to do, but let's balance that out with doing something that we love to do. I think we could all end up being happier. And happy people tend to be nicer to each other, and nicer people don't take advantage of one another... see where I'm going/wildly extrapolating?

Bottom line, whether you want to use my word or not (and you certainly may), figure out what makes you tick, and get after it. And if all else fails, maybe we can make "Passionize" the next new Snapple drink. Sparlke, sparkle on!