How many times do we need to be smacked in the head with the harsh realities of life before we stop looking up?
This is an odd thing to say from a position of privilege, but let's get that sorted right away. It is with great humility and "no shit"-ness that everything I say about difficulties in life, or challenges faced, is said with a strong perspective of subjectivity. It doesn't take a genius to know that many people in the world would give their right arm to be sitting in a position of white male privilege compared to the messed up horrors they're forced to witness. Thus, everything I ever say that might sound like complaining can be framed in the box of "who really gives a shit though".
When we were kids we were told that we should eat all our food, because there are starving children in Africa. I remember thinking how I could send my leftovers to Africa so some kid could munch on my discarded peas, but there was never a satisfying method. Eventually, when I earned a bit of money for myself, I signed up for a couple of charities with the few dollars I could afford. Turned out that most of the big charities that can actually accomplish something, will send you more marketing material than the value of your donation. Seemed a bit silly to keep throwing money at their advertising budget, so I stopped that a while ago.
Anyway, that doesn't really relate to what I was thinking about writing this week, but I suppose that doesn't really matter. Everything's a bit all over the place right now and I find myself in the midst of transience. Geographically I remain in place, but in every other way the flux is strong.
I spent the last few years trying to grow my little design business, but it hasn't reached the heights it needs to in order to remain sustainable. It's not that this changes anything, but it's made a difference to acknowledge once and for all that I have a severe dislike of advertising and marketing. I thought I could take an honest and genuine approach to helping small businesses with their branding in a way that wasn't sleazy and didn't require any bullshit discourse to make the sale. In some way that's worked and I've had a bunch of clients that appreciate my approach and enjoy the fact that I never shove a sales pitch down their throat. At the same time though, I've dodged a few bigger clients that could have been hooked if I pushed the right buttons, but in those cases I would have had to wash my mouth out too often to make it worth it.
What I'm alluding to is that while I don't have anything against people who work in the advertising and marketing space, I've come to realise that I really can't join them any time soon. I've always been averse to talking shit in order to convince someone of something they maybe don't need to be convinced about, but I thought I might be able to circumvent the noise with honesty and integrity. This isn't a case of "poor dude fails because industry is evil" or anything like that either. Simple fact of the matter is that I suck at the part that is imperative to growing a business and having it sustain itself long term.
Therefore the flux finds me in a place where I'm a little bit free (at least mentally) to consider other options. I search through available job listings to see what kind of roles are out there, and it turns out that I'm not qualified for anything. Job ads are just another sales tactic anyway, as they're full of falsehoods like "minimum requirements", which should be renames to "optimal requirements" instead. I mean, who's really looking for a "graduate" (so they can pay them lower wages), with "3 years' experience". Kind of an oxymoron isn't it? Maybe just moronic.
So I find myself bobbing up and down in the river of limited options, with a balloon that's quickly running out of air. Everything I think I want to do, or dedicate myself to, is better suited to hobby-town instead of career-ville. I often wonder what it would be like to have a passion for something that is a guaranteed career path. What if I was super into delivering mail? I'd probably be worried about automation and robots taking my job in the future, but right now I'd have access to a career I loved and could make a living from. That would be nice.
The curse of our generation and everyone following us, is that we were given so much choice in the world and told that we could accomplish anything we desired. We never saw hardship in our lifetime; we never had a world war to fuck us up later in life so that all we wanted was a boring job with a boring house in the suburbs. Our curse comes from the prosperity of our predecessors who succeeded to the skies, only to (rightfully perhaps) keep it all for themselves.
I know it's so cliché to be talking about generational strife in this day and age, and I'll be at the front of the "shut up and quit whining" line with the rest of you. I do think about these things though, and I can see both sides of the story for their own validity.
Unfortunately though, there's no denying that problems are forming that we cannot anticipate or look to history for answers. If you want a generation of smarter, happier, and all round improved human beings, then you better be able to find a place for them in this overpopulated world.
The thing that I always end on with this train of thought is this: stop telling everyone that they can be whatever they want to be. The ratio of success to failure is drastic, and your darling little angel of a child will probably lead a fairly insignificant and mundane life. Of course I hope they find happiness and love in their time, but they need to learn that it's not going to come from the world around them. Teach them instead to find happiness within, and through the connections they make with other souls along the way. Raise a generation of kids who are perfectly content scanning barcodes at the checkout of their local supermarket, because they are happy in life without a false sense of success and grandeur.
We'd all be better off if we were able to accept our position in the weird machines of humans that exist in the world. The hardest part of this privileged up-bringing has been learning to accept the reality of work and lifestyle that was always hidden from us as children. Imagine how better off we would all be if we received an education on the pursuit of happiness instead. Imagine having classes on acceptance and joy being part of the curriculum.
Instead I did "Business Maths" in my final year of high school. This is a subject built for students to understand the mystical world of compound interest and calculating taxes.
Oh, and I failed because I never handed in any work.
Later I met my Business Maths teacher in my adult life and he hugged me and thanked me for being a human being.
Still have no career though.
Plus, I'm always late with my taxes.