The MEn With A Job and the Curious Case of Ms B.

I complained about my lack of sleep last night because the mEn with A job concerning a pole, some cable, the roof of my house and some heavy duty power tools decided not to do said job until midnight. Yet tonight, well on my way towards tomorrow morning, I sit here dutifully writing on my blog. A friend of mine said she felt like blog was a dirty word. So cliche and sounds so similar to that four letter word that doesn't have an 'L' in it. But here I am.

There are often so many thoughts in ones mind that when asked, "What are you thinking about?" you don't really know what you are thinking about, if anything. Maybe you just don't know how to respond. I wonder if the answer really is that you aren't thinking about anything important? Sometimes all those thoughts get a bit too tangled and your brain decides that sleep is not so important anymore. I wish my brain thought otherwise, because I have to get up at 6:45am to get ready to go to work again. Work, Oh how I loathe thee.

Speaking of difficult questions though, Ms. B - a woman in possession of the most peculiar and inappropriate laugh I've ever encountered - asked me recently where I see myself in 5 years time? Or more specifically, what would I like to be doing in 5 years time? What once seemed like such an easy question to answer, now puzzles me. What has changed since those naive days of high school, when we all had our futures mapped out and everything looked so rosy? What happened to the girl who told me that she wanted to be married by the time she was 21, although she had never had a boyfriend. What about the boy who started a locksmiths apprenticeship and proposed to his High School sweet heart by the time the rest of us graduated? And what about the one who wanted to be the Queen of her Domain, with multiple degrees, an exciting career, a healthy bank balance, and the dream home with a husband and kids to ice the cake?

I've been told that constant change, impatience and an unwillingness to settle for anything less than the best, are qualities that define my generation. I think we all need to be a bit more patient, and definitely in relationships we need to learn to appreciate that they take time and effort and will never be perfect (because we are never perfect). But in our life's ambitions, why should we ever settle for something less that what we set out to achieve? As we grow and learn more about the world around us, we should allow those ambitions and dreams to grow and evolve with us. The kid who thought he wanted to be a police officer and then grows up and becomes just that, may well decide that it's not what he thought it would be. That his dream is really something vastly different.

Why is it so important to own an ordinary house in the suburbs, with a mortgage that prevents us from really living until we are retired? That's not to say I don't ever want to be a home owner. But why, if I want something less ordinary, should I settle for the sake of settling, just because that is what everyone else does?

More than anything else, I want to see the world. I want to see other cultures and people and learn about the way the rest of the world functions. I want to see, in the flesh, some of those great historical monuments and artworks I spent so much time looking at in a book. I want to be inspired and enlightened. This planet is adorned with so much beauty that no camera can possibly do justice to it, and I want to see it for myself. Or at least some small part of it.

I have a lot of respect for my parents and my upbringing, but if I ever decide to breed I want to be able to tell them stories of adventures and castles that I really experienced myself. I want to impart them with some knowledge of the greater world around them. To give them a sense of adventure and to inspire them to see what the world has to offer them, and to want to look after it too.

If that means I won't own a home for a while so be it. If I want to have a home that has a nice view, or doesn't look like something out of a Leggo Land catalogue, then I may have to wait a little longer, but I will still strive towards it. Nobody should ever have to settle for second best.

Pursue your dreams, however lofty. You may just end up ruling the world. At the very least it will give you something to look forward to.

Jessie MC
Black Is Not A Colour
(But if your ambition is to make it one then you have my blessings)