The Escape.

Apparently there's a mass exodus from New York. It can affect those in their mid-twenties, through the early thirties. Reader, beware.
Symptoms include: restlessness and a sudden impulse to see what else is outside of New York.
Yes. This is epidemic is true, in the last two weeks I have either experienced or heard approximately seven people in search of pastures (greener or not) gather their U-HAUL and hit the road, Jack.
And, yes these folks are friends so in some respects my fear of this epidemic slowly infiltrating my inner circle is like a animal-lover with arachnophobia cornering a spider; terrified, but compassionate that they need to live to.

It's hard to digest the idea that your dream of New York and the reason why people come here doesn't satisfy the appetite of others. I can't think of a time when I didn't want to live in New York, I mean from movies always staged in this city that seemed to stem love and endless promotions, who wouldn't want to live here?
I remember in high school; when I went through my contrary period (aka hanging out with bad influences) and I had this archenemy, let's call her Esheda. Now, Esheda was what someone could call pretty, but her attitude was so ugly. She used to prank call my house, threaten to start a fight with me at school so my record was scarred, oh and my favorite she use to taunt that no matter what "I couldn't be her." Little did this girl know I knew the kind of person she was and her status at school and empty threats were the last thing I wanted. That year, I decided - I'm moving to a place where insecurity isn't the motivator, but ambition is - I'm going to New York. And once I had that in my mind, her yelling at me in the hallway, or teasing me I just heard those Charlie Brown teachers "womp, womp, womp womp womp..."I had to stay focus, a pit stop in Charlottesville for some down south education and I was in the home stretch.
So I guess like any pseudo-small town girl, New York was a city to experience everything that wasn't my normal. I just knew I was going to be the displaced Shaker Heights girl that kept her 216-number, but saddled up with an attitude and coffee permanently in her hands walking through New York streets. I had to believe that the anxiety, better known as high school drama, wouldn't pull me down. But, you know, that's just my story on why I came here - I can't speak for anyone else and clearly my experience was unique. So, for the friends that do choose to move along and find their normal, discover what their everyday will look like, I can't be mad, I can't be terrified. I just have to hope my everyday matches what you see yours as being - happy, successful and exactly what you'd want to escape to.

Happy, Slash

I've been in an information-gathering mood of late. Talking to people about their experiences, learning about different ways to live and dream, and taking advice that inspire how I can achieve my goals. And then, I stumbled across an article the other day in AdAge - an interview with Nancy Hill, that spoke about my generation's talent pool and how we present ourselves and self identify with occupations. The article calls us the "slash" generation... meaning when you ask someone today what they do for a living, you get an answer similar to "well I am ___ slash I do ____ slash also ____" a long list of qualifications. No longer do titles and nondescript credentials satisfy this generation.

It's like, if our personal stories and qualifications exceed the standard answer then it leaves us with no choice but to over-divulge information. The article calls this a "collective experience" essentially we identify ourselves not only as one thing or occupation, but as multiple experiences that add up together to make one complete picture.  But is this schizophrenic passion to be great at different things revealing my generation's inability to commit? Or is it a result of a bumpy path triggered by a less than desirable job market?

I can only say that in my experience, I have only wanted to do and be one thing -- a great writer. Now, if someone asks me what I do today -- am I a slash participant? Initially, yes, because part of my job now might be writing, but it's also managing projects. Until one day, I met someone and I gave them the slash schpeal and they told me I should stop watering down who I am with other attributes that hardly describe my interests and dreams. So, that's a piece of advice I took.
I sometimes feel like our generation over-compensates for their current positions because they are not doing what they dream of and therefore add specialties and skill sets to a seemingly straightforward answer.
It's one of those things, if you are living your dream -- then what else is there to reveal? This is all a part of that trite saying when you start to do what you're passionate about it stops feeling like work.

So instead of people in my generation being happy, they are happy slash ...

So I'm going to leave you with words of wisdom from another friend of mine. He said to me, decide today what you want to be the greatest at and make a declaration, for example, "I will be the greatest female creative writer of my generation." Now, whenever you're thinking about a decision or what to do, think, "what would the greatest female creative writer of her generation do?" And then act. So, slash generation -- pick your greatness today and lose the slash anything that looks like a division sign has to be divvying up your passion.

The Physics of Dreams

Dreams, goals, ideas, and happiness; all ethereal aspects of life that keep us in a constant state of evaluation for change. These are all catalyst for life-changing actions, regardless of how they are categorized.

The impulsiveness of ideas and dreams make them what they are, but the self-negotiation could stifle that very pursuit of happiness and that's what we have grown to call decisions. So it goes like this the fire for change is ignited with a dream, goal or want for happiness, then you immediately enter a linear process where we evaluate a full list of criteria of the negatives and positives. Once you've analyzed and weighed the benefits you arrive at a decision to act. But, the action doesn't seem as life altering when it was just a dream because you've rationalized it. The fact-finding stage allows you time to be comfortable with a proposed action/decision or to declare it a good or bad idea.

But the very definition of movement is founded in the propellant, not ruminating. Hello, law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Pretty sure it doesn't say every thought results in an equal and opposite awesome list. 

Why is a woman like me, who took exactly one semester of "How Things Work", so intrigued by this simple equation? Well, I have a friend who just left her job as a PR executive and she's now going to be a nanny. Of course the initial reaction is to be floored, but I just kept thinking about how much I admired her gumption. She could comfortably say "I'm not sure what's coming my way, but now I have time for it, since I won't be stressed at an alleged 9-5." And it made me think, no matter what people might perceive of this decision it was hers and hers alone, she sought a way to be happier and the obstacle was her job, so she mastered that hurdle and found a new method of income. Given her open ended responses to her decision and what she would do about this or that, she spent exactly enough energy thinking about her decision and the rest making it happen. She's going to be happy with her decision and I couldn't be more proud to tell her story. Her energy behind her want for happiness created a progression forward that created an action. What's not to be impressed with that?

It's not easy and I'm not saying you should do things without thinking about it, but I am saying it's worth trusting your dreams a little more. To add another well known fact for support I can't help but point to Nike and the most popular ad campaign: "Just Do It." If this is good enough for the Goddess of Victory to live by that motto, then where can you go wrong?

Oh where, oh where has my little blog gone?

...Oh where oh where can she be? Apologies for the lack of posts, seems my blog inspiration decided to go into hibernation along with my running shoes for the winter... Never fear, they are both back and ready for running and writing (and boy the skinny girl inside me is just as happy as you are about the resurgence). So here we are, a few days before one of the most optimistic days of the year; where everyone vows to be a better self, be organized and create goals - GO YOU! I'm sorry to say you guys are late to this party. Part of my sabbatical was due to my quarter life crisis that decided to remind me in nearly two weeks I will be a quarter of a century so there has been a lot of "goal processing"...Two weeks away from that long list of things I wanted to do before 25 like climb Everest goes into the fail pile and onto the bucket list...Two years away from a drastic metabolism yield...One year away from my dream age -- 26. You know, when you were younger (and with apparently no concept of time) this is the magical age you thought you'd be married, in a glamorous apartment somewhere and VP of something...Although all of these dreams were pretty much crushed in the last two years or so by a little thing called Realism and his sister Practicality, it's hard to come to terms with the idea that your magical age is disappearing into the same purgatory as fairy tales princesses and Santa.
Anyway the list goes on, I had to get a new license, I will move into the 25-30 box column on surveys, and my decision making skills need to be sharper than ever. So I'm nervous. I don't think per say anything that day will happen, but it does lessen my chance that I will be on the Inc 30 under 30 list.
Is this an appropriate age to freak out? Can you imagine what I'll be like at my midlife crisis? Hopefully, you'll be reading my amazing book by then and you can read all about it vicariously through one of my fictional characters.

Triskaidekaphobia, fear of the number 13, Mr. Webster should've thought of one for the number 25.

Generation Y are we waiting?

I've noticed a trend in my friends and fellow peers - we're all just waiting. We're holding on to the carpe diem attitude - but it's for tomorrow. We are the most structured and imaginative generation to date. In terms of structure, we're reared to follow a path - school, college, job experience, money, balanced life, family. If someone veers off course they risk extreme disappointment or threat of missing one of these society-created grandiose milestones. And for women we worry about the timer we've self-imposed at each of the stations of life as if you stay too long you risk missing the next. Example: If a woman works hard,  she might make it to the "money" stage, but stay there basking in her dollars and career choices she forgoes a balanced life and family. May not be right - but it's what my ladies think.
For the imaginative - it's an effect of the MLK dream speech - we have a dream that one day BLANK... and you believe you can make it happen, but the drive and motivation to make it happen lacks in structure.
So you have a system of beliefs and beliefs without a system - and that's my generation.
This has resulted in a bunch of stressed and anxious individuals, a slump in cultural movement, we've been coined as the least active generation - generation y bother.
It's also created an ambitious group that has been told all their lives they can do and be whatever they want. Naturally, this creates a monster. We have lots of people thinking they are experts with two years experience and an untamed confidence that crashes when burned. Frankly, the only thing we are experts in is understand what we can be, but what does that do for everyone else who is living in the present? We're worried we won't make the right decision or we easily give in when different lines in the sand are drawn - but that's us and we'll run world some day soon, just not today but count on tomorrow.

It's my anno

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Blog-anno that is. Celebrating one year of writing ... the good, decent and nonsensical. For my anno, I think it's a good idea to rehash my commitment to this blog. For those of my readers that ask, "what's your shtick?"  I can't claim to be an expert on anything exclusively, I think some people have the ability to be social influencers on the specific. You have your relationship bloggers that some people use their words as bible, your athletic blogs, which tell you the same things over and over about diet, nutrition and their daily exercise routine, etc. And those blogs are great - if you're looking for something specific. From my perspective you read for pleasure; running, relationships and even food can't always deliver. But if you combine them all and have the ability to pick and choose - you get what I'm doing; blogging for pleasure. I offer some creative insights, opinions and stories; from me to you, unfiltered, non-committal. I just ask that if you enjoy it, you share it! 

Another question: "What keeps you committed to your blog?" This one is easy. I love to write, I have a few big wigs to impress and I have an ambitious goal to reach multitudes of people. I know the publishing industry is experiencing a mini-crisis right now, but I think it's because people aren't enjoying what they read. Everything is being recycled, reused and re-purposed. My posts,  thoughts/opinions I hope are interesting enough to not be considered as lackluster as this year's super bowl ads. Now, I'm not committing that I will write the next great American novel, but I seek to entertain, give a break in the mundane and get a few things off my chest every now and then.

And now a note of importance in history: Remember the week before you went back to school, your parents took you back to school shopping for notebooks, pens, pencils etc? If you were like my parents, who waited until Sunday night and all the stuff was picked over, the only notebooks that were left in stock were those expensive Five-Star multi-subject notebooks. So that's what I started with every school year, organizing five subjects into those sectioned tabs (color coded of course). Years later, I figured what better way to start my writing career than with another notebook - a multi-subject one filled with a multitude of characters, stories, opinions, hopes and dreams.

So here we are, one year under the belt. Thanks to all the my dear readers, dedicated over the last year - I hope you continue to read, comment and share, trust me there are more interesting, embarrassing and just plain happening things to come. Happy Anno!!!