Wednesday, August 7, 2013

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Why do you do it? Why do you get up every morning and follow that same morning routine? You know the ARGHHH just 10 more minutes PLEASE, the let me drag my feet across the floor to the bathroom to stare at my tired eyes and bags in the mirror, the eeek!!! I am getting into the coldest shower ever so that I can freeze myself into believing that being up this early is NORMAL and the constant go, go, go til I manage to get myself into that office, no matter what it may look like or be. Why? What is that reason that gets you up? Why even bother?

It should be because you LOVE what you do. But do you? I mean how many of us are actually doing what we LOVE? And have any of us ever really taken the time, to think about what that even is? Or what that even looks like?

I know in our world it all comes down to the monetary stuff, the things we like, the lifestyles we have all gotten accustomed to living and all that stuff in between. I am just as guilty as the next in believing that sometimes it's okay to not LOVE the day to day, because the "STUFF" is worth it in the end.

But sometimes it is so refreshing to sit across from someone and have them tell you how much they love every second of the job that they have. In fact to them it doesn't feel like a job, it feels like fun, like every day is worth something absolutely phenomenal. It actually becomes infectious and contagious and makes you turn around and LOVE what you do, even if you are reading the same document over and over and over again, it somehow makes the most mundane tasks feel absolutely amazing.

That's what I love about this AMAZING CONTINENT. No matter what people do for a living, they absolutely love every second of it. A job doesn't just pay the bills and put money on the table and buy them stuff. It stands for the hard work they have endured to get where they are, it stands for the family they are able to support, it stands for the fact that they are spreading some sort of happiness, it stands for the fact that they have the chance to meet so many different people, it stands for their self-worth, their pride, their belief in themselves and everything that comes in between it.  A job is how you spend your life and every moment that people are alive here, they are enjoying it, they are happy and all of that emotion and good energy, is incredibly addicting.

Today I looked in the mirror after having one of the best conversations, with one of the sweetest ladies ever and smiled literally from ear to ear and out loud I said "Thank you big D. Thank you for letting me see that these skills and things that I know sometimes seem so incredibly boring, have brought me here, allowed me to fix something that already seems so amazing and in the end allow me to be touched by such an awesome, awesome group of people."

I know what you all are thinking, I have seriously drank the African kool-aid. But in all seriousness when was the last time you said thank you for the fortune that you have had? You know those mundane jobs that we usually complain about?  When was the last time you thought, "actually, you know what? I'm pretty damn lucky"?

I used to envy people who were living out those childhood dreams they had - you know the pilots, the singers, the movie stars, the teachers, the doctors, the everyone's who were doing exactly what they said they were going to do when they were in first grade. But today, that envy stopped because secretly I realized that I am doing exactly what i want to do and have wanted to do for years and soon enough those bigger dreams are going to come to fruition.

So what about your dreams? Do you even know what they look like? And if you don't, maybe it's time you thought about it? So that you too can feel infectiously happy the next time your morning alarm goes off.

Back to working on my Setswana (i.e. obsessing over my new love for suits) :)

- A

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