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As someone who also came from poverty and dealt with some of these feelings, I found it helped to consider things on a global scale. Just being born in America
by rboyd 12y ago
As someone who also came from poverty and dealt with some of these feelings, I found it helped to consider things on a global scale. Just being born in America makes me (and you too?) extremely lucky.
All your limbs work? You can hear and see?
It's all relative. These self-pity parties are generally counterproductive.
No girlfriend by 30 and struggling very hard to get through interviews in an industry in such high demand suggests you may need to spend more energy developing your social skills. That's fine, it's a muscle you flex and develop over time. If you can filter the annoying "bro culture" out of PUA literature (like "The Game" by Neil Strauss) and just focus on the personal development, I'm confident you're going to have an easier time socially. In turn you'll have an easier time in your career.
We play the hand we're dealt and we're only here for a short time (at least until we solve aging). Which leads to my last point. Life purpose. It's much easier going when you have one. Dive deep and discover why you're here, what you can really contribute to humanity. Stay focused.
- dasil003 12y ago> Just being born in America makes me (and you too?) extremely lucky Author is not a native English speaker. Sticking my neck out: Eastern European or Indian?
- lgieron 12y agoIn Eastern Europe education is free.
- toddkazakov 12y agonope
- kamaal 12y ago>>These self-pity parties are generally counterproductive. While this is true, life is an unfair game. And we are all humans. So no matter how hard you try you are going to frustrated when you are treated unfairly.
- 6t6t6 12y ago> Just being born in America makes me (and you too?) extremely lucky. Do you base that statement in your experience because you lived in other countries and can compare, or it is just what you have been told? ;)
- rboyd 12y agoSure, I have lived in and visited some other countries. Walking off the plane at the airport in Frankfurt and not being sniffed by dogs and treated like enemy of the state: qualitatively better. Receiving free and needed medical attention in Cuba was heartwarming. Hanging onto a laptop bag by a strap and narrowly avoiding a run-and-grab robbery in Antigua: lame. Offset by amazing geography, and a sense of Marley-style love and community. Playing "gunshots-or-fireworks?" and watching cops throw down sandbags to soak up blood from a gang drive-by execution half a block from the apartment: pretty intense. But I'm not walking miles to the well every day to fetch water. I don't have babies dying of Malaria. The situation for the destitute in America is bad, but I do believe intelligence can lead to upward mobility with less friction in this country than much of the rest of the world. If I could chose from the entire menu, would I pick America? Probably the America I knew as a child, but probably not the America I live in now. But it would be far, far from my last pick. If I could take the known-quantity of America or be forced to roll the dice, yea I'll stay here.