Finding Balance: Family

So here’s the story I just accepting a new job that starts in two weeks.  My grandparents just were in a car accident and subsequently cannot drive.  I have spent the last two weeks driving them around and trying to get some of their things moved and they plan for the next stage.  

I am planning to go back home and will not be close to help them out.  I am concerned that I am not finding the right balance between myself and my family.  I want to be supportive but also need to take the opportunity.  

I don’t know how to find the right balance between helping family and living my life.  For now that means taking a job and then sending money back and coming home as often as possible.

Finding a Passion

Yesterday I had a short conversation with my bookkeeper.  We starting talking about our books and then it changed into what we really wanted to do.  She started talking about wanting to do something more creative like dancing, but with a husband and a child she found she had no time.  I started to talk about what I really cared about and saw myself doing.  These kinds of conversation are always fuzzy to me.  There is nothing that I say I have to do.  Nothing is cut and dry.  There are many challenges as you realize what the realities of dreams look like.  Dreams can be lonely and not always what is right for you.

I have spent the last day trying to make lists and think about what I want to do.  How can I help someone and let myself grow.  There are no easy ways to finding a passion, but you have to start somewhere.  Maybe that is what this blog is trying to explore.  What do I want to do and how can I carry out that.  I thought when I was young I had it all figured out, but as I get older my dreams get lost and what I want to do is sometimes the only thing I cannot place.

Your Job or You

Seth Godin is quickly becoming our favorite blogger.  He just posted about taking control of your career and life in a short and direct post.

“The alternative is to create a job where you create forward motion, where you do things to the job, not the other way around.”

On The Same Road

Today I spent the day temping for a company in New York.  I always get down on myself when I am temping because I feel like I don’t do what I am supposed too or catch on as quickly as I would hope.  Then I think about the fact that I am temping in the first place.  I went to college and did fairly well.  I was sitting there thinking about how I should have pursued other opportunities when I talked to the other temp.

He is a fresh-faced just graduated college kid from Colgate.  Yeah, that Colgate.  The almost Ivy Colgate.  I was suprised to hear that he was temping, but considering everything I guess I should have expected it.  He graduated almost a year ago and has been unable to find work.

I just sat there realizing that everyone is on the same road.  He might have a brooks brother sports jacket, but we are making the same amount.  We are doing the same job.  It is easy for me to think about what I should have done, but the truth is somewhere along the way it does not matter where you are from but where you want to go.