SubscribeI was asked by a former professor of mine to write a five minute stream-of-consciousness email about myself so that he’d have something fresh in his mind when he wrote me a letter of recommendation. After hitting send I went back and looked at what I wrote; I thought it was interesting enough that it was worth posting here.
I like to think that I’m someone who balances his interest in both the journey and the destination. Being at either extreme means missing out on a sizable part of life, in my opinion. If I generalize it a bit: To be focused on the journey means to live life in the present, while focusing on the destination means the predefined goals are most important. To me, these two things are complimentary. The journey is of little consequence if you don’t know where you’re going, and arriving somewhere is considerably more enjoyable if the path taken was itself enjoyable. So, I try to be aware not only of where I’m (hopefully) going but also where I’ve been, where I’m at and all the in-betweens.
The questions that interest me most are the “big ones”; you know, “What does everything mean?” and the like. I don’t suspect I’ll find any answers to these questions. Rather, I like to think that my awareness of them helps guide me in setting of goals and paths toward those goals. In that regard, success is determined somewhat by how well I know myself, so I try to be quite introspective and more importantly honest with myself. I regularly will “check myself” to see how I’m doing when it comes to my goals and if the path is making me happy. I also accept that change is only as scary or exciting as I want it to be and so I try not to prevent myself from making big changes in my life if I feel it is in my best interest to do so.
Jenn
/ 03 March 2010I don't know why I don't keep up with your blog, naim!!! But this was fascinating. In the way you describe yourself…for a graduate degree…not in philosophy!
In some way, does that answer the question of "who are you" or "how are you different from others?" or are you talking about "how do you achieve your goals?" It's interesting that you chose the latter, because it describes your philosophy of life, but how do you demonstrate what you describe is true? Your professor had a rather interesting approach though in trying to understand you.
Naim
/ 03 March 2010Well you don’t need to keep up with it too often because I haven’t been writing here much lately.
Things have been so hectic in my life I decided to not force it and just wait until my head is in a place where blogging more regularly makes sense.
To your question; you’re right… That’s the tougher thing. But I think if you’ve worked with someone hopefully you’ve seen them in action where the person observing can make a judgment call on the truth of what you say. The description of the philosophy serves to try and inform the observer of the motivation. Sometimes intent is the hardest thing to determine about a person’s actions, and having some insight to that that can make all the difference for someone who is going to vouch for you.