This photo was taken on June 21st 2003, during the Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitschko fight. This precise moment, as well as the entirety of the fight embodies what I've went through in 2013: it's been rough, messy, I've went down a couple of times, but at the very end, it's my hand that was raised. It's been a good year, overall. Tough, but good.
There is a common belief that aging and gaining maturity is like building a house, you keep adding blocks and beams and hardwood on the floor, you have to wire it up, buy and move the furniture around until you feel it's perfect. I don't subscribe to that belief. I believe we are born a block of granite and that year in, year out, the life we live keeps chipping parts off us until we reach perfect definition and beyond.
Point is, perfection is a fleeting and I don't know if mine is ahead or behind already...
...but it's probably mostly ahead! I've learned several things in 2013, took decisions and changed a lot. Adversity is a great teacher. Here is how it went down, more or less:
- I've lost my job on November 30th 2012, due to corporate downsizing.
- I've spent seven months on employment insurance, where I followed a 3 months internship on social media, spent three agonizing months sending resumes and query letters, went to interviews, failed miserably, went to other interviews, did better and finally became officially employed again on June 25th.
- Discipline and tenacity won me a better job that exploited my strengths better, paid better, offered a more dynamic environment and came with a world of expectations I had never lived up to before.
- I published one story that was first written in 2012. Considering how things went, I'm not unhappy. I had the worst luck with electronics too (my writing computer died in June). I have written less, but I have written. I just didn't publish much.
- I've established that Josie was my priority, so I've tried to be with her and make her as happy as I can. So I've spent a lot of time doing that too.
I'm not into that life lessons thing, but I've learned a couple of things in 2013. Thought I'd share.
- You don't know the value of something until you lose it. I've never thought that having a job, any job, would be of any value, but it is. Having a job is like having a house. Even when it's shitty, it changes the perception other people have of you if you lose it.
- Nobody will ever give you anything. Freebies are romance, therefore, success is a matter of skills, timing and luck. It's important to offer quality, but it's also important to have a sense of opportunity and a lucky star.
- Life can take you apart. Hence the aforementioned granite block metaphor. I wrote something last month about how life can turn you into your parents. It's a struggle to remain motivated, creative and young at heart, sometimes.
I'm not going to bore you with new year resolutions. I always want the same things anyway: write more, finish what I start, slouch less, be more active, yadda, yadda. I realize I write these blog post for me as much as for you. What can I say? I love writing. I love the sound of pounding keys. But if you've read this far, thank you. I didn't expect you to, but I deeply appreciate your readership. Even if you didn't finish this post and don't read this sentence, I appreciate your readership!
Happy New Year!
Health and Success to everybody in 2014!