Thursday, March 20, 2008

Work, Life, Purim and Happiness

Work this week has been very busy, but man it's been cool. I'm temporarily working in collaboration with Arts, on some tools that are going to be used for upcoming Video Games. Super cool stuff!!!!! I am really enjoying it, and it rocks the house.

I'm biking again a lot to work and back, and that's good. Seems like I was slacking a bit in the biking department so it's nice to get that going again.

There are some Purim events over the next couple of days and on the weekend... not sure if I am keen on these insane late night parties, but I might head to some of the other events. It's been a pretty super busy week, and I'm not sleeping as much as I should, so it's been a bit of a tiring week. I also need to get my taxes and 401k organized, and I'm searching high and low trying to get the best possible deal for my sister and I on our South Africa plane tickets. Anyway, things are sweet, and I am loving the work that I'm doing this week too. It's a lot different than my usual work, but man it rocks.

I feel like it's really important to be aware of how much I am enjoying my job and my life. It's really easy for people, it seems, to fall into a sort of cynical approach to existence, to their job, to the world around them. People at pretty much every job I've ever had used to laugh and tell me, "Oh, once you've been here for *insert number here* months, then you'll be angry and fed up like us"... I heard that same silly phrase from different people, at almost every single job I've ever worked at. Weird eh?

NOTE: I am not talking about any specific job or employer here. I am just speaking in generalities about my experience in the world. Just wanted to make that clear before you read on.

It's almost like people hold a badge of honour in their minds if they manage to impart some of their cynical and negative feelings onto a bright new, young person. That makes absolutely NO sense to me. And to answer all those people's silly ideas... NO! I don't think I'll ever be cynical and angry and fed up and annoyed with my work or my job or my life. It seems to me that at least 80% of the happiness that you have in your day is controllable by your own attitudes, the way you deal with people, the way you let things people say affect (or not affect) you, and so on. I am confident that the Jutan sweet powerful vibe will still be rockin' after many years of hard work, and I don't think there is any way I'll ever start thinking that movies aren't absolutely inspiring and amazing and fantastic. :) Seriously, if I was the kind of guy who got discouraged by hard work, don't you think I would have crashed after a 5 year degree of ridiculous proportions at the University of Waterloo??? Case and point. :)

Anyway, just thinking about how people approach their workdays, and the way that I think I live my life compared to how other people do it. There does seem to be a wide level of approaches to the issue of work and how to deal with problems that come up at work and personality clashes and so on... but I dare say I think a lot of people consider that their newfound cynicism is a by-product of becoming an Adult. I say... nuts to that!!!!!!!! I have my freakin' Cars toys and Darth Tater Mr. Potato Head and talking Edna and Zurg models and Homer Simpsons Spiderpig sculptures at work... and no matter what, I don't think I'll ever feel the need to "grow out of this" and "start being an Adult"... I think we define in ourselves what it means to be "grown up" and an "Adult". I think I am defining that now, at this point in my life when I am done University, done my essential 3-month backpacking trip in Europe... and now I'm settling down in a place for a decent amount of time and trying to figure out what's next, and how I want to live my life now that I'm a "real person." I hope I'm doing it well. There's always a bunch to improve on, obviously. And I could always be doing more here, and less here, doing better things here and wasting time less here. But hopefully I am maintaining my approach to life, my enthusiasm for the world and the people I meet around me, and my passion for being me. I think that's the one thing that people seem to forget unless they keep at it. I am adamant to maintain my positive, near-insane over-enthusiastic view of the world and I think that suits me well.

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