We've come a long long way

We have come a long, long way this year, haven't we? And without making sweeping generalisations, I will focus this little post on someone I know very well - myself. Last year I was a sad little graduate of a girl, all my self-esteem and aspirations stolen from me by the culture-shock of the real world. Gradually, time healed me. My quarterlife-crisis ended at some point in late November 2008 (it had started in December 2007 and reached its ugly peak in July 2008) and I'm happy to say I'm a lot happier nowadays just living in the moment, working in a satisfying, ethical and human job (albeit paying merely pocket-money). As such, my creativity is happy too. It's no longer fighting for my attention in a mind controlled by job-hunting and desperation and confusion. I'm no longer trying to work out my role and place in society because I've found it at last. I'm also not feeling nearly as nostalgic about university as last year - who wants to be uprooted from society, be spoonfed a stimulating and amazing mixture of social life, intellectual musings and fake notions of grandeur when you can be a salt-of-the earth type person who works during the week for something worthwhile and satisfying and builds a lasting base out in the real world?

Work is good for the creative soul. You don't have to be a young heiress living in Madagascar to write works of Literature. You don't have to be a lottery winner doing a year abroad in a university studying the craft of writing under an accomplished and famous teacher. Hell, you don't even have to be a young middle-class graduate travelling around the world, having the time of your life, all the while being funded by your hard-working oxen of a parental unit, no. You can be poor like me, living with your parents and siblings for the time being, while working towards moving out and doing a meaningful and well-paid job like a primary school teacher or a domestic violence worker.

Screw privilege and the type of opportunities that are handed to you on a silver plate. Forget being a member of the gentry or nobility, what's truly noble is working for a living and creating your own opportunities, making the good life happen with your own two hands. If there's anything Obama has taught me is that it's never too late - the guy paid off the last of his student debt only a few years ago and is now the president of the USA and providing very well for his adorable little family unit. In fact, he's a bundle of hope for everyone out there. And without going into the politics of it, I can safely say this brilliant, beautiful, charming brown man has shifted the way we think. Even if he turns out to be an incompetent politician (which I highly doubt), at least he has been a mentor to us all.