Connecting The Dots

“If you’re a new follower, send me a note and let me know how you stumbled across my twitter page. I love hearing how the connection was made.” – Julie Minevich’s Twitter wallpaper

And that’s exactly what I plan to do – because of reasons that I will in time explain. The picture is a timeline of the chain of events, which is elaborated upon below.



Monday morning had reared its ugly head and I found myself at work little tired (not unusual) and a little bored. I checked Gizmodo for the latest tech news and realized that E3 was taking place. Upon watching the Microsoft media briefing session I became infatuated with XBox's new addition Kinect and started looking for where I could order the XBox Slim, which was announced to be shipping this week (much to the media’s positive surprise). Not finding any success anywhere regarding availability on Best Buy’s website, I decided to try a new route of seeking their Facebook page for others who may have posed my question and maybe already having been answered. Their FB page led me to Best Buy’s “twelpforce” Twitter account and the top post was one made by “julieminevich” asking a question about a Canon S90.

I’d like to say that at this point I’ve fully explain how I got from point A to point Z (Julie’s Twitter) so there is no obligation whatsoever to keep reading. I would however, like to explain a very rare thing that occurred as the next short chain of events that led to a weird… I wouldn’t exactly call it an epiphany per se… but an astonishing and impressed sense of agreement.

I was about a split-second away from closing the web browser window after taking a quick overview of Julie’s website but caught the word “Blog.” I’ve always been infatuated with what people (albeit educated, articulate with words, and written from the heart) have to say/write about themselves. Upon catching the headlines of “Dating 2.0 – Best Medium for Post-Date ‘Thank You’ Message,” I was immediately hooked and dove right in because it was directly applicable to my recent personal life events. After reading the other two related blog entries and casting my votes for associated polls, I wondered: what else does she think and have to say about other things?

That was yesterday. I returned to exploring Julie’s blog again today at lunchtime in my cube. I settled on the post titled “An Invitation to Live Life” and dug into my lunch as I glanced up to read the blog in between bites. But by the 2nd paragraph I was so provoked by what I had read that I had to just put down my food and concentrate on reading. This particular entry was actually written by a friend of Julie’s, but the discussion revolved around the life of a (I’m going to use Julie’s tagline here) “twentysomething” and the uncertainties surrounding life after college and venturing into the adult world. The writer – Michal – then proceeded to pose inquries that questioned what it was that people were supposed to be doing at this point in their life.

All of this struck dead-on, a pretty big philosophical vein within me. What I mean is that I was surprised that another individual, whom I have never ever met, could have the exact same thought process and come to the ultimate, defining conclusion that I had arrived at (but through a different manner). It was an unreal feeling but one that I’ve had before on a few occasions when I was completing my philosophy minor back in college. I eventually went back and dug through my personal blog entries, and found that I had asked myself a lot of the same questions and wondered a lot about the same uncertainties roughly 20 months ago.

To this day, I don’t believe I’ve come across the answer to such questions as “When does real life start? When you are married? Have kids? Career milestone? Settled down (geographically)?” It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I haven’t been able to place a check next to any of those items or cross them off the list. But I have already come to a pretty big personal insight/breakthrough at the age of 26 that’s helped me live my life in a much more optimistic and meaningful manner:

Surely there are check-points in this journey that is your life, but if you strive to hit those – and only those – check-points, you will have lived the same life as everyone else. Is that really what you want to do? Be John-Every-Man? Nope, not this guy.

2nd Place

The thought of coming up just short of winning and taking it all - the glory, the limelight, the feeling of accomplishment and pride - has to be one of the worst feelings that humans endure. When "play to win" is the mentality, coming in as the runner-up just doesn't cut it for anyone competing in anything. You are the number 1 loser. The person/team that came oh-so-close. Your names are the ones that gets forgotten because it's not immortalized on a trophy or plaque. And as you sit/stand there watching the winner/champions celebrate in joy, your mind is at first blank but soon filled with thoughts of what went wrong or what could've been. Your heart (rate) goes from beating a million times a second - due to the adrenaline rush and excitement of being in the moment - down to what feels like a complete stop as it gets struck with feelings of remorse and disappointment (with a bit of shock).

I'm not exactly sure if I'm super/overly competitive when I sit down and think about it. I think it is a combination of various personality traits of mine that draws out the competitiveness in me. Of those characteristics, my ego is probably one of the largest contributors. I'll admit it - yes, I like being in the spotlight and showing off something that I feel that I do well. The second quality that contributes to my competitiveness is actually the perfectionist part of my upbringing/nature. If I screw up or fail because I didn't perform up to expectations to what I know I am capable of - that really ticks me off.

I suppose the best and perhaps only way to deal with it all is to be an optimist. But as a general pessimist who sees not only "the glass half empty" but oftentimes also "who failed at filling it up to the top," I personally find that incredibly hard to do sometimes. Nevertheless I've learned tricks and coping methods in my quest to develop my good sportsmanship and as a more positive person overall. While the theory of "we'll get them next time" may sometimes be applicable, often in a championship/final game situation that "next time" is a long LONG ways away. So throw that one out the door. Then there's the optimist's beautiful world of "at least we had fun," and "we got farther than everyone else." I generally try not to default to either of those two cheesy if not fake justifications that tries to cover up the reality of what actually happened (you lost!). But if the other team deserved to and earned their win... and you gave it all you could (and more), then there's nothing that says you can't walk away from the experience with absolutely no regret because you left it all on the table.

Moral of the story: always attempt to give it your best - and if you succeed in doing so but still come up short, simply shrug your shoulders, shake your head and say "oh well," and move on. Trust me, somehow you will walk away feeling okay with finishing 2nd.