Today was Memorial Day here in the United States, one of our most patriotic holidays of the year. It also falls a week and a day before our primary election day in Maine.
I’ve been reading a lot about the candidates up for election next week around the web, and as it does every election cycle, the rhetoric being used really concerns me. Politics is a competitive game, and it’s reasonable to assume that discussion and arguments between candidates will grow heated as the election nears.
But there’s a point at which it needs to stop. I’ve read a number of comments from Democrats accusing the Tea Partiers of trying to “destroy America.” I’ve heard Tea Partiers say the same of Obama. Just stop. Please.
Politics isn’t baseball1; we’re all trying to make the best country we can. Sure, we have differences in how we believe that should be done, but the end goal is the same. We all want what’s best for the people who live in America.
I don’t normally consider myself to be an overly patriotic person, but I do feel extremely lucky to live in such a great country. As you talk about politics, and as you discuss candidates up for election, remember what our veterans have fought to maintain. America is a place where we’re free to have discussion and disagreement, but we’re also all working to build the best country we can. America is an experiment, but it’s undoubtedly a great one.
1. I don’t enjoy most professional sports for this same reason. When I watch the Red Sox and the Yankees play, I don’t see two teams and fan bases who hate each other; I see a couple dozen people who have spent their lives becoming the best at what they do. Honestly, I’d much rather watch a lower-key college game. I think they’re a lot more fun.
Five years ago this month, I walked across the floor of Alfond Arena in Orono and was presented a blue folio. To them, it was a “congratulations!” To a lot of us, it was “what now?”
I’ve been thinking about that lately. I still don’t feel like I have any kind of definite plan about where I want my life to head over the next years or decades, even though I feel as though I should by this point.
In a lot of ways I really don’t feel as though I’ve changed much since my graduation. Assignments from teachers have changed to assignments from clients. Final exams have changed to final revisions. But many of the same questions I asked myself in 2005 are the same questions I ask today.
I have realized over that time that I’m a very passionate person, even if I haven’t had the outlet to fully express that passion. That’s where it gets complicated.
Followed passion
When I happen to find some free time, I usually head to YouTube or to blogs. I’m inspired by people who follow their passions, whatever they may be. I end up sending messages to a lot of random people just to ask how they became interested in whatever they do and to provide just a little bit of encouragement. (I’ve found that it’s really tempting to give up a passion if you feel you’re not supported.) Over the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to develop some really great friendships this way.
I’m also fortunate enough to have friends – both online and in person – who are really good at what they do. One quit her day job in order to become a photographer. One’s turned a dance hobby into a successful life of instruction. And I often hear how surprised they are by the level of improvement or ability that they’ve been able to reach.
They all inspire me. And honestly, I’m jealous of them.
The crowded parking lot
My brain’s a parking lot. It was my favorite metaphor while I was growing up; I can only hold so many “cars” (pieces of information or things that capture attention) at once, and if I want to focus on something new, something else has to leave.
Since I was very young, I’ve just had too many cars: too many interests. Around the same time as the parking lot metaphor, I’d set up fake little businesses around my house: a library, a post office, a restaurant, and even a mini-golf course. My parents would order business cards for each of them, and over the years I developed a pretty strong collection of them. At one point I think I had cards for seven or eight different ventures.
You never had to tell me not to put all of my eggs in one basket.
Dream jobs
If I had to choose a fourth question I most frequently ask, it would probably be one that’s pretty simple for a lot of people to answer: “what’s your dream job?”
I’ve never had one. Part of my frustration with passion is that I’ve never been able to figure out my vision of an ideal job.
I really do enjoy web development, and I’m pretty talented in that role. But would I consider it a dream job? I don’t think I would. A lot of people assume that I’d be a full-time photographer if I had the chance, but that’s not the case; I think it would spoil my love of the art if I always had to shoot how other people wanted me to shoot. I’m fortunate enough to have some level of control over the photography I do now.
At this point at my life, I just haven’t been able to pin down what my idea of a dream job would be. But I have been able to figure out a couple of threads that run throughout the things I enjoy doing.
Jobs creation
You might notice I mention Steve Jobs pretty often. That’s because he has two traits I truly respect: perfectionism and a desire to make things better.
Ah, perfectionism. It’s a mixed blessing. I’ve been a perfectionist since… well, probably before I made dioramas of Pompeii and the Great Plains for projects in fourth grade. I don’t like doing anything I can’t do well, and I always try to push my skills whenever I tackle a new project.
Perfectionism has a downside, though: more often than not, it doesn’t work very well in team settings. There have always been horror stories of Apple employees failing to achieve Steve Jobs’s vision or expectations and paying dearly for their failure. But it happens in everyday work, too; I’m often not able to be the perfectionist I want to be in web development, for example, because of time constraints or because I want my co-workers to continue to believe that I’m not a complete jerk. It’s unfortunate and frustrating, but it’s just one of the concessions necessary when working at a service-based company.
The desire to do the best possible work often goes hand-in-hand with the desire to make things better. I love doing what I can to try. RateMyPage – my first real web app – was an attempt to make a better feedback system for web designers. DatAvenger is my/our attempt at creating an easier and better way to manage a site. The projects I’ve been helping to design lately also try to improve systems that already exist but could be better.
The road ahead
Five years after my college graduation, I’m at a point where I think I should really do all I can to figure out what’s important to me and what I can do to improve it. The process will take some time, but I want to be open about what’s on my mind so that I have a record of where I’ve been. Maybe you’ll have some ideas for next steps I can take.
You may notice that I’ll be talking more about passion in the future. I think it’s an extremely important topic, and it’s been on my mind a lot. We’re fortunate enough to live in a time where we can do more than we’ve ever been able to do in the past, and I think we should do all we can do embrace that opportunity.
Now I just need to figure out what I want to do.
Remember back when I mentioned my favorite traditions a couple years ago? One of them has always been the dance concerts at the University of Maine. This semester’s show was held last weekend, and it was a special one: it was the final performance by a number of my favorite (now graduating) dancers.
It’s amazing how connected you can feel to people you personally don’t know very well. My first dance concert was back when I was in college, and since then I’ve watched student performers grow as their performance styles mature. Quite honestly, the last piece of the night was one of the most emotional works I’d ever seen performed in person. UMaine has incredibly talented dancers.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I brought my camera to both of the performances. I love the diversity of the styles, and each of the thirteen pieces was top-notch.
I can’t wait to see what’s next!
On my drive to work this morning, I happened to tune my radio to WERU, a community radio station in our area. I typically regard it as one of the more mature, intelligent stations in the area. Unfortunately, Jim Hightower’s commentary this morning didn’t uphold that reputation. The opinion piece the station aired about Arizona’s new immigration law was, I’m sorry to say, a completely biased, one-sided look at the legislation. It angered me. I’m used to hearing drivel on television and the radio, but it’s almost always of an opposing viewpoint from my own. The piece this morning made no attempt to address the state of Arizona’s rationale behind the law, and I was ashamed that a station like WERU would air such garbage. (And now I know why I don’t listen to the station more often.)
I don’t agree with the Arizona law. I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of it are found unconstitutional in the future. But the piece this morning reminded me that a lot of the news we hear today is a second- or third-hand report; instead of interpreting the law and the world around us ourselves, we’re interpreting an interpretation. The quality of this information relay degrades significantly with every step.
Almost every issue in the world has two sides. Instead of taking the word of the radio program this morning, I read the Arizona immigration law for myself. It’s a short read, and it’s an important piece of legislation that will ultimately affect how we view immigration and civil liberties in America. It took about ten minutes for me to read, and even though I don’t agree with it, I felt better.
If you hear someone say a position on an issue is absolutely right or absolutely wrong, never accept their opinion at face value. Find out why it was done and decide for yourself what to think. The issues of the world aren’t black and white.
