I did have a third category of discussing things that I’ve learned from being in an advertising career for the last three years, but as I am currently an active job seeker – I will refrain from any comments that could be misconstrued at the moment. I will definitely touch on this topic eventually!
In all honesty, I was down on myself for a while this year with the stresses of a girlfriend breaking up and moving out, being unhappy with work, and what I felt was losing my friends. It was very easy to play the blame game, be upset and moody, and overall not productive with my time or things I was doing in my life. Something that took a while to realize and start applying is all the good things that are still true; I am a healthy male who has the privilege of living in one of the greatest cities in the country (and the world!) and still has friends & family. Additionally, lot’s of great things happened this year too that were easy to forget about while dwelling on the negatives:
- While I may have had some friends leave the country, I was able to reconnect with some other friends that I haven’t spoken to or seen in a very long time
- I may have lost my first cat Sherlock (still my son!) but he went to a home where I know he’s being taken care of and loved as he deserves
- On top of this, I rescued Cosmos from the Humane Society who was a 2 month old kitten that was found on the streets. Cosmos has turned out to be the most loving and playful kitten that I could not be happier about.
- I set a personal goal to become debt free at some point during my 25th year. I am happy to announce that not only did I become debt free, but it happened halfway through 24!
All in all… this has been quite the year to reflect and learn. Boy have I done a lot of both. While things may not have worked out with my relationship, I have zero regrets as I had the opportunity to love someone unconditionally for the first time in my life. This is something I cannot fully explain in words or put any sort of value on, but it will be something I remember for the rest of my life as it was the greatest feeling in the world. Speaking of break-ups, I also feel like I broke up with my job, but hopefully this is a short term period of unemployment that will lead to a successful long term career – this has yet to be determined but the thought of what’s to come is quite exciting.
A lot of what I have typed in these posts I have discussed with people over the last few months, but I felt that it would be beneficial to have them in written form; not only to share what I have learned with others, but as a reminder for myself. I look forward to a new year and new experiences, but will always remember 2014 as one that will have defined part of me forever.
I will leave this post with some rap lyrics (surprised?) from Big Sean on his song All Figured Out off of the Hall of Fame album. As much as rappers can spew a lot of crap (let’s face it, most of what they rap about nowadays… “COCO” anybody?), there can be some great lines as well and below are some of my favourite from recent times:
Today I woke up and realized that every day gets shorter. Every minute turns to the longest second, yet never ending. Age is nothing but a reminder and it doesn’t tell you how old or young minded someone is.
Understand it never ends, and the only way to be immortalized is to be remembered. Hopefully from right than wrong. Whether it exists for what you do or not, we create this world so we make what exists.
If it isn’t about the award, it’s about the award of being immortalized and remembered for all the right reasons. Mistakes are forgotten, no footprints of any missteps. So when it’s so late that it’s early and you need a drink even though the bar’s closed, remember why you do what you do, with who thinks about you, your family, your team, the joy of looking back and saying that you did it.