Homage to The States I Call Home
by I have been concentrating a lot of my time lately on job hunts here in Texas, and it has led me to realize some key insights into how my home state of Michigan prepared (or rather failed to prepare) the majority of its children to go forth and take a beating rather than conquer and win the day. These are some reflections.
So my point in this little rant? It turns out that if you work your hardest, try your damnedest, sacrifice everything for your goal, you are more likely to miss the people and chances willing to help you out along the way. The planning to enjoy life, in other words, decidedly destroys your life. In exactly the same way that Michigan is dying because it clings to a formula for success that has been defunct since roughly 1970, Michiganders are dying because they cannot figure out why their age-old standard (circa 1900) for success is no longer applicable. Texas, on the other hand, is doing comparatively better even when held up beside the rest of the United States. Companies might take seed here because it’s rich in resources, but companies grow and thrive here because it is rich in atmosphere, in culture, and in possibilities. Unlike Michiganders, Texans believe and know they are fortunate: they value what they have here and they are sure to enjoy it, because they know it’s the having that makes you what you are (to roughly paraphrase Jethro Tull).
So go ahead and fight, work hard, be diligent, apply yourself: just be sure you are enjoying every minute of it or it’s not only worthless but soul-crushing and pointless, and it certainly will never pay the bills that matter.
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