I feel very late in the game to a truth about governing bodies that so many authors and political leaders have expressed in the past (including Juvenal, the Roman poet who coined the term): Essentially, those in power give the common people entertainment and distractions in order to make them neglect the more essential matters: For example, giving out bread and entertainment (circuses) to win votes in an election instead of addressing harder fundamental issues like the state of our democracy as well as existential matters like the fate of our planet. (Really a microcosm of what's going on in our society today). I was overwhelmed by the accuracy of the analogy when I went to a baseball game today (The Cooler strikes again! Home team lost, surprise, surprise when I attend any game) and observed thousands of people willing to travel from afar to spend $20 for parking, at least $20 for the cheapest seats, and then pay for way overpriced chicken tenders, fries, and other bread-like food, and more importantly spend a precious weekend day on, a hot sticky baseball game between 2 non-contending teams. It may be a general trend on my development as a person than an indictment on baseball or bread and circuses, but it's really eye-opening for me especially who's loved baseball since I was a kid but then realize it's a.) a giant corporate conglomerate that just feeds off the American populace and doesn't really give much back, and b.) is a way for governments to essentially blue-pill (a "The Matrix" reference) Americans and have cable TV wash over them (a "Runaway Jury" reference- Gene Hackman speech). I got a little angry at myself but at the world that this is what we've come to, watching our lives waste away while baseball players paid millions of dollars a year (the top ones, at least) argue about calls while there are wars being fought overseas and critical decisions made by the government every day, and I guess I'm part of the problem of just buying into the easier route in society of just succumbing to entertainment.
And then contrast it to finishing the Simu Liu memoir I wrote about earlier........so many things that resonated with me in Simu's book, foremost of which is the big traumatic event in his life, getting laid off from Deloitte right out of college, his first job. Just so things building up for him of parental expectations, society expectations, lack of passion for the career that he had mistakenly chosen; a lot of things I was spiritually nodding my head at. Life is puzzling for a 22-year-old just starting out in the adult world. Like Simu, I've been laid off/ fired many times in my career (my work is a little different though), and I can still remember vividly the experiences of a failed job interview or the meeting notifying me that I was let go to this day, and my heart still pounds matching the pounding I felt back then). It made me feel like an imposter, like what I'd done to that point was all fake and had no meaning, and I was worthless, especially during law school interviews after 1L year in which the rest of one's career can be decided based on whether he/she lands a summer job at one of the big law firms or not. I did not....a consistent string of rejections from various law firms without a single callback interview confirmed such that fateful summer of 2009, much like Simu's accounting career hit a major roadblock when he was laid off at Deloitte. Just like him, a major break happened for me on, of all places, Craigslist (I didn't know Craigslist was a thing in Canada too!) as he responded to a casting call for Asian actors for a film called "Still Seas" (which was a code name for the movie "Pacific Rim," and his acting career started there, without any acting experience up to that point. Kind of incredible and partly due to his persistence of pursuing his passion and partly due to, let's face it, luck......being at the right places at the right time. Similary, I capitalized on dumb luck on a Craigslist ad asking for attorneys/law students who were also Mandarin Chinese speakers, during 2L year of law school.....and 112 years later I've somehow made a career out of it (not as big as being cast as Shang-Chi in a Marvels superhero movie, but OK....)
Simu's book does do a great job of commiserating with so many high-achieving people out there who are not happy at their jobs and feel like it's hell going to work every day (MJ tells me she feels like this often) and I kind of agree with Simu to try to pursue your passion and work won't feel like work anymore. Then again, Simu and I both lucked out that we selected jobs we're good at, we enjoy (or for me, at least can tolerate), and pays well (kind of a big one, isn't it?) And it all started on CRAIGSLIST!
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