Friday, July 17, 2009

Fail Blog

That should be the new title of my blog since only three days into my promise that I would post every day I have already failed...Whoops!

So, I caught the last 1/2 hour of the movie Serendipity today and I heard a quote that kind of stuck with me: "The ancient Greeks didn't write obituaries, instead they asked only one question of a man: 'Did he have passion?'"

As I'm trying to determine my direction in life right now (where do I go for grad school? what exactly am I going to get my masters in? what do I want to do for the rest of my life?)

So, in true Summer fashion, the first thing I did was research if the statement in the movie is even true. Apparently it is...kinda...

Aristippus of Cyrene, of the post-Socratic school of Greek philosophy, developed a philosophical movement called Cyreanaics, of which, one of the main precepts was Egoistic Hedonism. His philosophy said that everything was based upon the human reaction to pleasure and pain through sensation of the world, rather than the Socratic and Platonic belief in "Ideas", a.k.a.-the ideal forms that humans only imperfectly percieve in the material world and which they had to reconstruct in their own minds in order to perceive the true and the good of the "real" world beyond the senses (See Plato's Allegory of the Cave").

Anywho, Aristippus and his followers felt that people should always seek pleasure and avoid pain which would lead to right moral behavior. Specifically, that in the cultivation of ones passions, they would find heightened experiences, or "Know thyself".

/Philosophy lesson

So, how does this relate to me? As I said, I'm trying to figure out what direction I want to take in my life right now.

To do that, I have to figure out what my passion IS.

Of course, if you know me, you know this question has been keeping me up at night for the last 7 or so years.

So, what have my conclusions been so far?

I love traveling - hence my thought of getting my masters in International Business. Then, ostensibly, I could find a job that let me travel.

Of course, I also love helping people - hence my thought of getting an MBA with a greater focus on non-profit managements.

Then, I found a solution that could combine the two - Gates Foundation. It's an international non-profit. Perfect, right? Of course, I can't get a job there to save my life.

So, what else do I like? Cooking. Don't want to be a chef (have you ever worked with a chef? They're assholes!). Similarly, I like food. I don't have the experience or palette to be a food critic though. I like wine tasting! Still don't have the palette...I enjoy reading? Yeah, don't think that I have what it takes to be an editor either.

So, yeah, still searching. I want to figure it out, but damn it's hard. I failed at keeping this blog going for even one full week, let alone a month. And so far, I have failed at finding my *passion*. (I say so far because I honestly believe that I WILL find it, just haven't been successful so far...) Any suggestions? :)

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