enough shortsightism
Critical thinking is sexy, but all the magic disappears when it's not put to long-term use.
What's the overarching plan? Where are we going? When are we getting there?Those are the questions we should be asking. Next elections don't matter in the grand scheme of things.
Democracy is awesome, but the way we've set it up has a major issue: people don't care past the voting ballot. It's the winning they want. But then what?
It's bleeding into other aspects of our lives. Forget job interviews. Can you truly say where you see yourself in five years?
I'm not saying don't enjoy the moment. And plans unravel fast. But shooting your shot aimlessly is just going to hurt bystanders. And then they arrest you.
Life is more than just sleep, eat, work, repeat. But it won't be if you don't put any thought into it.
I struggled with this for a while. I'm a humanist at heart more than I'll ever be an IT nerd. And languages and writing have been my thing as long as I can remember. I've been blogging in some capacity since the age of 16, but creating content is a brittle little thing. Definitely not a career if you want a life outside the screen. But I love writing - what else can I do?
I've kept it as a hobby. It's my non-monetised thing I do to keep my mind off things. It's creative, but also productive - I like to think people learn because I write. A white lie I tell myself.
Sanabis, Bahrain, 2012 - own archives
Teaching English is my job. A pragmatic choice borne out of a fleeting thought that allows me to live and study abroad. Work is not plentiful when you finish your Bachelor's in Middle East Studies, but it was no waste of time. My overarching plan is the study of the Middle East. It is to help understand Europe's immediate neighbourhood. And it inncludes both my things, language and writing, because it's best understood knowing a local language, and there's writing involved - among other things.
My work compliments both my hobby and my plan. People do learn when I teach by the very nature of it. And not only do I make the money I need to live, but also get the skills necessary to present information and let people work with it; something vital in research, but is sometimes missing. And I get to work with languages.
This actually works very neatly with my previous writing: go and do things. I've experminented. I'm getting where I want to be because I've left my comfort zone. I tried new things. If you asked me five years ago where I saw myself in five years, teaching would have scared the living daylights out of me. And ten years ago I thought I'd be a journalist. That actually remains an option in my overarching plan.
So go find your thing and play with it.