I never thought that the inability to afford my own place for several years would lead to a strength of flexibility. Apparently, living with others and not being able to make many of your own choices can lead to learning how to compromise, how to live with lots of different types of people, when to move out when the people you live with turn out to be crazy, etc. It was quite a learning process. It has also helped that I don't really make the decisions at work. Yes, I can be decisive, but now I am also willing to defer a choice to someone who is more passionate than I am when a decision doesn't matter to me. Ha ha.
The last couple of days I've had a quote running through my head, "adapt or die." When we decide to be rigid and stubborn to the point of damage to one's self, that's just unhealthy. I'm guilty of that. My stubbornness has been helpful on the rare occasion, but mostly it just gets in the way of my ability to accept change. Like the whole Apple/Macintosh/i-whatever thing. I've personally had bad experiences with Apple, but most of my family hasn't and happily use their products. I don't on principle but it's possible that I'll have to take back my oath of no-i-things-ever one day. Which is exactly what happened when I swore I'd never let my hair be layered again. That promise to myself lasted until a) layered hair came back into style and b) I had a hairdresser who knew how to cut my hair so that layers were actually attractive on my head. So, never say never or it will come back to haunt you. And I realize that the phrase should be something like "avoid saying never," but the other way is funnier. I'm always looking for the "funny."
Because I do tend to cut off my nose to spite my face (I know it's an odd phrase, but it works for me), I think I'm better qualified to notice this trait in others. I have a co-worker in the midst of their own personal battle with our company. As with many other businesses in this shaky economic atmosphere, our company has cut back on the "extras." It's probable that we'll never get those perquisites (shortened to perks) back once the economy recovers, so we must learn to live with less. Trying to bend the company to your own will for your own selfishly stubborn foolhardy unnecessary "needs" probably won't work. And when a company isn't shy about letting people go (when the opposite used to be true), perhaps making the company mad isn't recommended. It's also true that company loyalty is ALSO no longer rewarded...and businesses wonder why the younger the workforce, the more likely they'll hop from job to job for better pay and/or treatment.
If I don't learn to roll with the punches at my place of business, I might lose my ability to live without roommates. And though it is extremely tempting to look for a new job so that I might actually enjoy what I do more than I do presently, my current stilted career path leaves me time to do other things...like maybe actually finish the novel I've been writing for years. If I can work on being more disciplined in my writing habits, that is.
As a side note, I would like to mention that it would be nice if the those that run our company would also take a long, hard look at adaptation and its benefits. Then they might not have as much of an alarming employee turnover which is starting to include people who once expected to retire from the company and aren't that far away from when they planned to. That's a bad sign when even the "lifers" are looking to leave when they're so close to earning a full pension. But it's an employer's market and for every one person miserable at work there are many others who would figuratively kill for a job, even one with few benefits.
So I'll try harder to be happy with what I have, even if it isn't great or perfect, and work on my own side projects. I hear that even if I get published, including more than once, that I'll probably have to keep my day job. So I'd better. I don't want to live on anybody's couch and I don't have a sugar daddy to provide for me...so I'm on my own to work this out. Good luck to me.
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