A "Community" Streets Ahead

The return of the NBC comedy Community was just announced after a near 2 month hiatus to the absolutely bliss of Community's intensely loyal fans.  The comedy was pulled from NBC's Thursday lineup due to low ratings.  But this is the age of technology and the voice of the common man (or woman) has never been heard so loud in all of history.  We live in a time when social media, such as Twitter and Facebook is king.  Community itself references many of these forms of media throughout show, as it is a comedy constantly using spoofs and pop culture homages to from a backbone of comedy.  The fans of the show are naturally good as using these outlets because it is what they enjoy to do, and it is one of the reasons they watch and love the show.  Consequently, these fans, (myself being one of them) were not going down without a fight.  We fought to save the shows life using whatever we could such as Twitter hashtags like #SaveCommunty, and #Sixseasonsandamovie to get the attention of NBC and let them know that this show is important to us and there is a dedicated (albeit small) fan base who will not let our favorite show die.  Well it seems our efforts may not have been in vain.

That being said, I will get to the point of this blog post.  As, some might call us, "hardcore" fans of Community we are obviously ecstatic that our show has found its way back into the mainstream, but it leaves us with some unanswered questions, like what has changed?   For some reason that we as fans do not understand, Community did not gain the attention of the masses the way we all thought it was deserving of.   It has amassed many positive reviews and critics have praised the show for being one of the most innovative, original, and best written on television, which we already know,  but so many others have failed to realize.  Because of these facts, we really don't want Community to change.  We obviously want new episodes and want to see character development, but we don't want to lose what has made Community such a classic show.  We don't want to lose the awkward meta-humor and nerdy movie and TV show parodies.  We don't want to lose the connections that we have all made with these characters, and the sense of "community" that we have developed with other fans of the show.  We do however, want the show to continue and not be taken off the air again, so whether we like it or not, we might have to stop isolating potential fans by using these "inside jokes" from the show that we have come to know and love.  Just because the fan's of the show are "streets ahead" for having recognized the potential of the show from early on, it does't mean we can't be a growing community of fans.  Community has, and will hopefully continue to do things right.  So it is our responsibility as fans to embrace new ones and find ways to help them connect with this crazy, insane group of misfits we know as Jeff, Britta, Annie, Troy, Abed, Shirley, Pierce, and yeah even Chang, that we can so easily identify with.  If we want our favorite TV show continue to be just that, we need to find new creative ways to develop new fan bases so we can all enjoy this truly remarkable show, and become our own real life "community."

The Pursuit of Happiness

Its interesting how everyone goes through life seeking something, whether it be money, a job, love, religion or something else, it doesn't matter.  Why do people seek these things?  The answer will invariably be that they are looking for happiness in their life.  They believe if they find all these things that it will lead to a happy life.  But what ultimately does lead to happiness?  This is a question that I have been seeking an answer to for a while now.  There have been times in my life when I have definitely felt 'happy' for a period of time, but its always fleeting and it never lasts.  So I ask myself, "what am I doing when I feel those bursts of happiness?" Usually its when I am with my friends.  Sometimes its when I feel connected to God in a personal way.  Other times its because I am with my family.  But one thing that seems to always be the case is that I am very rarely happy when I am by myself.

So that leads me to think that I need other people to share my life with to feel truly happy.  'Other people' could be a few things,  friends, family, and a relationship.  The way I look at it is, you can have all the friends in the world, but if you don't have that special person you can share your life with and connect on the most intimate levels, a true soul mate, then you will never be happy.  Thats just how I feel.  Friends are also an extremely important part of the puzzle that is finding true happiness.  You need those people in your life who you can just have fun with.  I heard a quote from a show on NBC called Community. The character Jeff Winger is talking to his friend Pierce, who feels that he has no real family to share his life with, and Jeff tells him, "Pierce, if you have friends, you have family." I really like that quote a lot.  Because there are people who just have no family support whatsoever.  Luckily I have an amazing family who support me in all my endeavors, but its comforting to know that if I didn't have that, my friends are there for me, kind of my "second family"  and I love that.

Ok so say you found, friends, family, and your soul mate. Great! Are you happy now?  I don't believe its that simple.  I think there are a couple other components to the complex equation that is happiness.  Once you have all those people in your life, you still need to support yourself and your family.  You need a career that you love.  In life you spend a huge amount of your time working.  I think this is an area where a lot of people settle.  They find a job that pays ok, its enough to get by.  They stick with it for their whole lives even though they might cringe everyday when they pull into the parking lot. That is not something I want.  If I am going to spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week working somewhere, I want to love what I do.  Obviously money is important, because I want to provide for my family someday and give them all the opportunities to achieve their goals, and many times money is an integral part in that.  But I'm sure you've heard as I have that money does not bring happiness.  Finding a career to me is more about feeling fulfilled in what you do for a living than making the most money possible.

So a lot of people would look at this list, friends, family, husband/wife, a great job and think, "well thats it right?"  As a Christian I say no.  There is one more integral thing that I believe everyone needs in their life to feel truly fulfilled and happy, and that is a relationship with God.  I can almost see all the eye's rolling and hear Tim Tebow references coming from my non-Christian friends as I type this.  But I don't care.  There have been times in my life when I have drifted away from God and honestly, those were the time when I have felt the most depressed and lonely.  There is just something amazing that comes with a relationship with God and its difficult to describe.  Everyone thinks that they have to go through life and handle their problems on their own.  But that is not true, if you take your problems and sins to God you just feel this weight has been lifted off your shoulders.  You don't have to take on life by yourself, and its the best feeling in the world.  I don't know if that adequately describes the feeling of having God in your life, but thats my bit. Im not trying to force anyone to change who they are, as I say in my blog description I am a Christian but I won't judge you for having a different view of life, thats just how I feel.  And if you like the way that having a relationship with God sounds, message me on Facebook or Twitter and we can talk about it more.

Well if you read this whole blog I am seriously amazed and grateful for your support. I know so many people have jobs and school and don't feel like taking the time out of their busy schedule to read a 20 year olds blog, but if you did thank you so much.  Let me know what you think about this topic.  Is there a formula for happiness? Or is it just an idea that can never really be grasped?  Leave a comment on my below, or comment on my Facebook page.

Thoughts On Steve

Wednesday October 5th, I was at work on my break and as I always do I reached in to my bag to retrieve my iPhone to see if I had any texts.  There was one from my mom.  All it said was, "Steve Jobs died at age 56."  And the first thing that popped into my mind, was the number 56.  I thought to myself, "that is way too young!"  My own father is 50 years old.  If I were to lose my dad a short 6 years from now..... I didn't even want to think about it.

Obviously I didn't have any kind of personal relationship with Steve Jobs, but for some reason the news of his death seemed to have a profound effect on me,  it deeply saddened me.  Im not sure why exactly, maybe is because in the last year his Apple products, such as my iPhone and MacBook Pro, had been such a big part of my life, or maybe it was because I had got to know Steve through the many articles and videos I had seen of him.  Who knows really? But what I did know is that there was a huge outpouring of grief, not only from the technology community, but it seemed every community was mourning the death of the great visionary.  Celebrities were tweeting their condolences and memories, people were flocking to there nearest Apple retail store to lay flowers or post a sticky note on the window with a few words for Steve on it.  I honestly don't remember the death of a person that seemed to have such an effect on so many various groups of people.  Barack Obama said that, "There may be no greater tribute to Steve's success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device that he invented." I did. The President really put it perfectly.

Steve was not only just a technology titan though, he was also a father and husband, and our thoughts and prayers should go out to his whole family in their time of grief.  There is going to be a biography released for steve on October 24th written by Walter Isaacson, and I personally can't wait to read it and learn more about the amazing man that was Steve jobs. His legacy will live on through his products for many years to come.

Here are a few of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes, taken from his famous Stanford Commencement  speech.

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” 

“you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” 

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” 

“If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” 

“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Figuring Life Out

Finally I get a chance to write another blog!  Its been a little crazy at work lately so I haven't had much time, but hopefully I can start writing on a more regular basis because I love writing my thoughts down.  (nerd alert) I kinda feel like this blog is similar to Dumbledore's pensive.  A place where I can just empty my mind by writing my thoughts down.  It helps me think clearer, gives my foresight and hopefully assists in me making better decisions.

Literally all I do at work it walk up and down an aisle and label boxes and throw them on a conveyor belt for ten hours.  It really is mindless and monitions work, and because I don't need to think about my work at all, I have a lot of time to think about other things, and more and more lately my brain has been steering my thoughts in the direction of my career.  Its funny, when you're a senior in high school thats usually the time people start thinking about what they're seriously going to do, but everyone says if you can't decide now you'll have plenty of time later.  Then when you get into college they say the same thing,  "college students change their majors all the time."  But despite this, It doesn't make me feel any better about the fact that I just can't seem to make my mind up about what the heck I wanna do with my life.  I seriously am the most indecisive person when it come to choosing a career path.  I am constantly changing my mind about what I want to do and I can never seem to narrow it down to just one thing I want to go for.  So with all this time at work, I decided to try and make good use out of it.  Because I can't just pick a career and be satisfied with that choice, I need to narrow it down somehow.  So here are some things that I want out of my job.  I want to work with people in some way or fashion.  Right now at my job I am alone 90 percent of the time and I hate it.  Next, and this is a slightly weird request, but I really want a job in which I can wear a suit.  I like to dress nice as my friends know.  I don't want, what some might call a blue-collar job anymore.  I have worked several of those throughout my teenage years and I have not enjoyed one of them.

Great so that narrows it down to probably about a million and one jobs.  So where do I go from here?  How do I sort through it all?  I keep hoping Im going to have some dream one night that will show me at my perfect job on a flashing neon sign and when I wake up I will say "thats it!" and just know.  I really envy those kids who just know what they want to do from a very young age and work toward it their whole teenage life.  Well my teenage life is behind me and I haven't really worked towards anything.  I'm definitely not scared yet, but I worry a lot.  Im the kind of guy who likes to be on top of things and know whats going on, and this is one thing that I just can't seem to get a grip on.

Let me know that you think about this issue.  If you are an adult and you have a job that you enjoy, how did you go about figuring out that you wanted that job?  If you are an indecisive kid like me, tell me how you are dealing with not knowing what you are going to do.  And if you want to just make suggestions, well thats cool too (:

To Dream or Not to Dream...

When you are a kid everyone tells you to go for your dreams, and dream big!  They say you can be whatever you want to be when you grow up.  So as a kid you think of the coolest job you can imagine because at that point you don't even care about money yet.  So you dream up all the things that you see on TV and read about in school.  Some kids want to be astronauts, some want to be famous singers, others want to be a movie stars.  I personally wanted to play for the Boston Red Sox.  When you are young these things don't seem so out of reach.  Well as you grow a bit older, you begin to realize that some of your dreams may not be so realistic.  You can't be an astronaut if you get sick just from going on a roller coaster,  and you can't be a famous singer if your shower head can't even stand your voice.  During your teenage years you begin to figure out what your strengths are, and you proceed to formulate goals which seem slightly more realistic than the whimsical fantasies of your childhood.  Now Im not saying that you can't be a professional baseball player or a movie star.  If in high school you find yourself starring in everyone one of the schools theatrical productions, or as the star pitcher of your baseball team then maybe those are paths you should pursue.  But for most of us, what we long to do as a child ends up not being quite as easy to accomplish as we had hoped.  Even though we may not all be cut out to be in the movies, that certainly does not mean we cannot all find a career which we love.  And just because you have grown more mature it does not mean you can't still have dreams.

When I was in the final months of my high school career I formed a band with some of my close friends.  At first we began playing music for fun but as time went on it became something more, it became a dream.  We released some music and our friends seemed to like it.  So we released some more music, and people seemed to genuinely enjoy listening to it.  We figured if we could just get more exposure and more fans maybe we could really make something out of this band thing.  But time goes by and "life happens" as one of my friends likes to say, and we still hadn't got to the point we had hoped, and the band became stagnant.  This band life was my dream as a young adult.  I watch these bands, whom I loved, play their music for big crowds every night and drive around the country with their best friends, and I wanted to do that! I wanted it so bad, and I still want that.  I don't care about being famous or making loads of money, I just want to do something I know I'll love.  And obviously there are lots of bands out there who tour and make a living at it.  Why couldn't I do that too?

There comes a point though, in your life when you have to make a decision on what you want to go for. But my question is, when is that point?  When do you let go of your dreams and begin working toward something that is more safe?  Sadly I don't have the answer for that question.  It is something that has consumed so much of my thoughts.  So I ask you, is there a time to move on from your dreams?  Or should you never let go and keep chasing it until you you've either caught it or no longer have the energy or will to continue?  Theres really no right or wrong answer to these questions, and Im very interested to see what people think!

Into the Real World

I recently turned twenty years old, and when you are nineteen, you still feel like a kid. You feel like nothing can touch you.  You are right out of high school, still immature in many ways, still naive to what the "real world" is like in many ways.  But eventually you have to start making important decisions about your future, and that can be a really tough thing. Society tells us you have to go to college to be successful and get a good job, and that may be true in many ways, but it forces you to make some tough decisions at an early age.  How, when you are eighteen years old, do you choose the career that you are going to pursue for the next 2-8 years of college?  It can lead to severe stress and anxiety when you are a senior in high school.

All through school I was one of those kids who would procrastinate until I absolutely had to do something, and I did the same thing with college.  Upon graduating high school with grades which were good, not great,  I decided to try out community college.  After one semester decided it wasn't really what I was looking for.  So I decided to take some time off from school, get a job and save as much money as I could. Well after and year and a half of working two different jobs, waiting tables, and working at a distribution center,  and saving no money, I decided it was definitely time to go back to college so I could pursue a career in which I would want to go to work everyday, instead of dreading it as I do now. Back when I was fresh out of high school, I didn't appreciate what college could do for me.  I just wanted to take the easy way out and start working and making money, but the real world ends up kicking your butt.

I feel like I spend a lot of time thinking (and worrying) about my future.  Am I the only who does this? In what ways do you cope with the pressures of life, and school, and prepare yourself for what the future has to hold?  I am interested to hear your ideas and opinions, so leave a comment below.