May you live in interesting times;
May you come to the attention of those in authority;
May you find what you are looking for.
As the title states this blog is the fourth installment in my “Life After College” series, check out the Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3 if you haven’t read them yet.
I’m not the biggest believer in curses, voo-doo, and all other supernatural stuff, but on occasion I do wonder whether it’s real. Then I watch some cheesy movie and think, “Okay, it’s completely crap.” Then a day later, I watch some Discovery channel show and now I’m carrying Holy water and bible around. (I’m a child of the Television Age…LOL)
As an unemployed college grad, I read a lot about how to achieve life goals. I have 6 main goals right now (No particular order):
- Find a job
- Go to law school
- Write a book,
- Travel overseas
- Start my own design company
- Se happy throughout it all
Unlike most people I know, my goal aren’t to be a millionaire, own a $100,000 car, live in a mansion or marry a model. I just to do what I love to do and be happy. Don’t get me wrong, my goals use to be for riches, then I heard a speaker say, “if you do what makes you happy and have fun; all your dreams will come true.” So if I achieve my 6 simple goals, all those things (cars, homes, money) will come without any extra work.
But as I was saying, I read a lot about achieving my goals and if there is a systematic or easy way to achieving those goals, I want to know. Obviously there isn’t, it’s all involves hard work. Go figure!
Well at end of this one article, the author had a famous Chinese saying that I heard once before but on this day it caught my attention.
May you live in interesting times;
May you come to the attention of those in authority;
May you find what you are looking for.
As soon as I read it, I thought, “OMG, that is so great! I’m going to write that down in my motivational quote folder. I’m going to say this everyday. This is how I’m going to achieve my goals.” The 3rd part of the saying was my favorite.
Then as I did some research on the saying, I found out it was a “Chinese curse”. Just my luck, I find an amazing saying and it’s a famous curse. It was like I finding a 100 dollars, then when you try to spend it you find out it’s fake. I went from being excited to, “Oh God, I don’t want to this to be my life. Seriously, this was so good.”
You could research it yourself (it’s a lot of information on the web) or I could give you the simple breakdown of each part. Simple breakdown it is…
- Part 1: May You Live in Interesting Times
May you experience much disorder and trouble in your life.
Apparently the original Chinese saying translates to this sad & harsh definition but it’s a curse what do you expect?
But if you thing about it living in interesting times could be either a blessing or a curse. Most people think, what’s so bad about living in interesting times? Life is boring without some type of excitement. The excitement of the day, could make you want to get out of bed every morning. That is true but lets think about it like this, with the good you have to take the bad. Every up has a down. I know that’s kind of depressing but the reverse is true, every down has an up.
- Part 2: May you come to the attention of those in authority
May you come to the attention of powerful people, whether they are with you or against you.
Another two sided sword of the curse. Getting the attention of those in power can be a blessing. Getting the attention of your boss could lead to a promotion. Also think about it like this, you could get the attention of your boss and you could mess up and get fired.
Also do you really want powerful people noticing you? What if they become jealous? They could easily destroy everything you have worked for.
- Part 3: May you find what you are looking for…
May you find what you are looking for whether it’s good or bad.
As I did the research this is the one that rung the bell, raised the red flags for me. I’m one of those people that like to dig deep. I don’t stop at the surface; I keep going till I hit something solid. This is probably why my relationships turn bad most of the time.
My whole life, my parents have always told me, “If you dig deep enough your going to find something you don’t like and when you do you better be ready for the consequences. Because once that box is open there is no going back.”
We don’t really want the things we think we want.
The basic meaning of the actual curse, all 3 parts, is: Be Careful What You Wish For.
I mean I was all over that thing, I would say it every morning while doing my morning motivation.
Quick side note: Most every morning, since I was a Junior in college, before I move out of my bed, I spend 5 minutes saying about 5 or 6 motivation quotes to get me in the right mindset for the rest of the day. Most days it works and I bang out my list of things but other days, like most people, I just get up on the wrong side of the bed.
I just knew this saying was going change things in my life.
Like I said, part 3 was my favorite part. It seemed so innocent (kind of like some girls, I know) but as I came to learn, it was the most dangerous (also like some girls, I know).
It’s human nature to be curious. We want what we can’t have and what others to do have. Some people seek out fame and the fortune it brings, and are not ready to the consequences of fame, like the daily inspection of their lives by outsiders. I mean just ask Lindsay Lohan. She can’t even move with out have 100s of camera in her face, blogs blowing up with details of her moves, and entertainment/news networks analyzing those moves.
*Preachy moment*
I was raised in the Baptist church and was taught that God has a plan for every single person on this planet. All we have to do is follow his word and he will provide all our needs. Well that’s easier said than done. We are creatures of the flesh, when we want something we want it then and there. We do not want to wait!
In my own life, I know it’s hard. Sure, I have faith that God will provide me with what I need but he’s going to do it in his time. No disrespect but God sometimes seems to take forever. That period of time will really test your faith in God’s plan, but everything happens in due time.
Just have faith, like Abraham God told Abraham to move to a brand new country, and Abraham obeyed God and followed Him, even though he didn’t know where he was going.
*Preachy moment*
Now like I said, we are all creatures of the flesh and my faith got weak and I kind of forced my way into the situation and actually got a job offer. (Part 2: The Hub company)
May you find what you are looking for
The company was disorganized, the recruiter was unprofessional, and the pay was crap. If I took the job, I would have been in worst shape, than I’m in now. It wasn’t the job for me, so I declined the offer.
I guess the curse is true. Maybe if you try to rush things and do thing outside of God’s plan, you will end up hurting yourself more than helping yourself.
Like I stated earlier, I just knew this saying was going change things in my life. Well I was right, it did change my life. It showed me to be careful what I wished for…
I’m going to end the blog just like it stated…
May you live in interesting times;
May you come to the attention of those in authority;
May you find what you are looking for.