I blogged in ”Cleaning and Simplifying” about finally really cleaning my home office. I had just thrown things in boxes and stuck them in the closets here when we moved. I left it mostly untouched for a year.
Well I’m proud and happy to report that everything is neat, tidy and organized. I purged a ton of stuff. Simplification in action.
I am trying to be a former collector and memento keeper. I had even kept all of my notebooks, handouts and papers from college and grad school. When I was done purging, I had 3 empty boxes just from the school stuff. I was left with a much smaller stack of things I might keep. Hey that’s fantastic for me.
I read much of what I found and separated it into save and throw away piles. Then I came across one of the student newspapers I wrote for. I had only kept one copy of one newspaper. I wondered why I did that. I flipped through it to see why and saw an opinion piece I had written in my under grad years. Then I knew why I had kept the newspaper.
There was a piece where I had bared my soul, shared my real thoughts and admitted I would be unable to finish my education, because I couldn’t pay for it. I had lost my job. I had kept that particular newspaper because that piece helped get me a scholarship for my senior year. The Dean of Students read it. She said that I embodied that spirit of our school or something like that and approved me for a scholarship. Good things really do happen in the real world sometimes.
I wrote the piece in 1992; but it could easily have been written by a college student today. I am directly quoting snips from the piece
“I keep reading and hearing that the recession is almost over. From my point of view, it is still escalating. Why do I say this? I was recently laid off from my job. The company I was working for apparently had not been doing well enough to keep me on at the pittance of a salary they were paying me. They have been having financial difficulties for two years.
Since 1990, the company has laid off more than 100 people – nearly half of its 1989 workforce. What does this say about the current state of the economy? I guess it says that some of us are still up the creek without a paddle.
There are thousands of college graduates who can’t find jobs. Master-level graduates are competing for jobs as receptionists. They can’t find work in their chosen fields.
If you don’t have a lot of experience, how are you going to get a good job? I’m not talking about working at McDonalds’s for minimum wage. I am not trying to sound like the voice of doom; however, I am the voice of reality.
Now, I am not telling anyone how to vote in the November 3rd election. I am only voicing my own opinions. I have watched all of the debates. It’s pretty scary to think that one of these men could possible take over the presidency.
The one thing you must ask yourself is, “What has the current administration done for me lately?” Now I am not a political science major, but I know when I am not satisfied."
The piece continued on talking about politics and the importance of voicing your choice by voting to fix what was wrong with the current administration. I wrote about change and how it has to come through the voters.
Did anyone else get a small chill just then? Either I am physic, or we are just repeating a cycle. I remember reading somewhere there are 20 year cycles in politics. If anyone reads that, would someone please send it to me? I want to prepare for the next cycle.
