¡Organízate!

The post title* is the title of chapter 2 of my first Spanish book—"Get organized!"—and seems fitting now that I am working in both Spanish and English every day, preparing rough but accurate translations to and from both languages. After I dropped my music major I picked a Spanish major because I wanted something that would be practical in the job market. "A marketable skill" was my catchphrase in that regard. For most of the year following graduation I thought that my Spanish major wouldn't do me a lick of good and that it was no better than any other liberal arts degree... but almost a year to the day later, dammit, it has paid off.

I am going to try to write a little something - even if only a few sentences, a link, or a dumb sports take - every day. It's a little frustrating because I do want to write for an audience, but I also think that personal essay writing / journal writing is completely worthless if you're not completely honest. I will try to paint an accurate portrait of my life and share some anecdotes without completely incriminating myself - not in the sense that I'm doing anything illegal, but just because there are things you don't want kicking around the internet.

Like the 30-song challenge - and I inadvertently skipped one and only ended up with 29, I realized, but I threw in lots of extras, too - I was inspired tonight by a list. This one is not so much a call to action but rather a list of 50 "Life Secrets and Tips" I saw posted on Facebook. I like a lot of these and I'm going to comment on some of the ones that piqued my interested in one way or another.

Memorize something everyday.
Not only will this leave your brain sharp and your memory functioning, you will also have a huge library of quotes to bust out at any moment. Poetry, sayings and philosophies are your best options.

Easy. Doing translations, even though my command of both English and Spanish is fantastic, my Spanish is slightly on the rusty side, and I am constantly dealing with vocabulary and phrases I have next to no prior experience with. I am learning many new words and phrases every day. Looking something up multiple times in a day is a helpless feeling and I should probably start a notebook of new words.

Develop an endless curiosity about this world.
Become an explorer and view the world as your jungle. Stop and observe all of the little things as completely unique events. Try new things. Get out of your comfort zone and try to experience as many different environments and sensations as possible. This world has so much to offer, so why not take advantage of it?

I like this. I already strive for this.

Get fit!

Duh, done that, and continuing to do that.

Learn to focus only on the present.

Even more specifically, live in THIS moment.

Don’t take life so seriously!

These things are a bit trite but they're also really important. The past is over and the future is a consequence of what you do today. Like I said, I've been in a bit of a rut, but one thing that can help anyone live a positive lifestyle is to not be afraid to laugh at one's self. That's a major change I've made over the last year or so, and it's for the better.

Read books.

Biggest personal goal when I move into my own place is to develop and mow through a reading list. Honestly, I love my computer and I love reading about dumb sports crap, but after staring at a computer screen for 9 hours at work, the last thing I want to see when I get home is a computer, and sports seem to be becoming slightly less important to me. There are only so many hours in a day, and only so many things you can care about. I want to be literate and well-read. I have a reputation of work of "exuding intelligence" which is nice and all but I can't really live up to that sometimes in good conscience. (The "Make it Mad" article I linked to months ago was something of a transformation for me, a landmark... this thing may be a wakeup call too.)

Be honest at all times.

Always. I hate lying and I hate when people lie. I don't mean that in an icy, backhanded way like you'd see on a 16-year-old's Facebook status. I literally just mean that I get this horrible knot in my stomach whenever I try to tell a lie or be dishonest (when it isn't just something silly) and I don't understand how others can get that feeling and still do it. (My guess is many of them don't.)

Figure out what your goals and dreams are.

Getting there. I have had a Sticky note open on my Mac's desktop for months and some of the stuff is really outdated - lists of chores from December - but one thing that's stayed and is still relevant is "LONG TERM GOALS," which reads "Travel, higher education, family." None of that's changing and I hope that with the new job I can realize all of those to a greater extent.

Be the person that makes others feel special.

Develop a charismatic personality.

My father had these qualities. Despite being somewhat quiet and careful with his words, that only added to his perceived sense of intelligence and wit, because he only spoke up when he had something clever or smart to say. And when I'm rolling - what I call "New Benny J" - I do feel like I have the ability to be the life of the party. I try so hard to listen well and empathize but I don't know if I have or will ever have that special quality that pertains to the former point, where people walk away from a conversation with me and feel better than they did before. That was what my dad did and it was obvious by the way all his acquaintances came out of the woodwork when he was ill. It was during that time that I resolved to strive to be like him and I think I am doing fine, but I just have to keep trying to lead the best life I can.

Do what you love.

The things I love are simple: tea and good coffee, running, playing the horn, laughing with friends, and great beer and wine. I try to do all of those regularly. Tea and coffee, yes. Black tea and espresso never cease to put a smile on my face. Ever. Running, yes. Laughing, yes. Beer, yes. Wine and horn? Not as much as I'd prefer. But I am going to be playing horn in the local town band and also in the Town's production of West Side Story (for a CHALLENGING change of pace), so I will be doing more of what I love. I enjoy practicing and I might get back into trying to play every day or at least a few times a week. (Feel free to buy me some wine and I'll be back into that too.)

Come up with a life mantra.

Mine changes over time. "Good to go" is what my Facebook said for a long time. "Comity" is what it says now. Both are great. "Swing the bat, puss" was last year's and it worked for a while but kind of betrayed me, though I still crack up when I think about it.

Meditate.

Taking some quiet time away from the warming glow of the computer screen and my awesome new smartphone would be fantastic. This might be a before-bed kind of thing, though doing so during my lunch would work too. It's just hard to manage serenity in the middle of the city, especially one where it never stops raining.



That's about all I have. This was quite introspective and not at all funny but this blog has never had a clear direction so I'm not sure what it really SHOULD look like.

* - I always read and learned that a title is best written last, because only when you're finished with a piece will you truly know exactly what it's about, and you don't want your writing to be married to a title if your writing changes course. So this was not a best practice. BWWFAI? (That is my attempt at starting an internet acronym, BTW, FYI. IMHO it's a good one.)