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Occupying is the First Action Towards Moving

Three days a week I sit in a car with two older ladies for at least 3 hours.  This time is spent sometimes in silent thought, with NPR on the radio and each of us thinking about the acts we must do for pay that day, other days though are filled with deep intellectual conversation. 

One of the woman is a mid 40s Filipino from a rich and traditional family, the other a early 50s Jamaican from Brooklyn with a husband who is tied directly to the NYSE.  I, I am the anomaly here, the young one, the male, the 20something, as these two ladies begin the plans to transition from the manufacturing to the meditation chapters of life I am also in transition, but from the matriculate to manufacturer. 

We share ideas, views, and laughs. Most of our conversation is spurred on by the NPR stories we are all half listening to as we interact with our phones, the portals to the information that directly affects our commute. Each of us are much more connected to these information interfaces than with each other the idea of complete silence in such a close proximity to other people seems rude to ignore so we have conversation, none of it being very exposing but all of it being much easier to take in than the silence that no conversation would require.

These conversations though have revealed to me the stark differences in the realities between generations.  The death of dreams from one generation to the next and the rise of new dreams in their place.  The three of us, me the professor of Sociology, the Filipino the socially aware para-legal, and the Jamaican from New York, all have our interest, albeit each distinctively different, in the #OccupyWallStreet. 

I though feel more than a detached gross interests in this deviancy toward the status quo.  I feel connected to the protesters.  I am part of the 99%. I am part of this 'Forgotten Generation.'  As much as I pretend to have it all together, as much as I seem to have it all together, I am reminded daily that it is all much more fragile than it should be.

I followed all the rules, did all of what I was told to do, for what?  For a contract job (that don't get me wrong I do love but do wish it was more than just a part time semester to semester contract) that I am never certain what the future holds with it.  I have the education, the clean criminal and credit record, the creative mind, the connections that impress, and the family that continually lifts me up.  Even with all this I still find myself finding more simularities to those in Union Park than I do to those in my carpool. Why?  Why do I feel more connected to seemingly dirty hippies in a park than to those who work in the buildings around me?

I think it because of the future outlooks.  I share a future of uncertainity, of despair, of hardship. This, of course, due in small part to the refusal for the greatest generation and the silent generation to look beyond their own realities to those of future generations. The silent genration has finally spoken up and stolen away our future.  Generation X has seen this reality and has stepped up its claim for a part of the dreams pie that those that preced partook of.  This though has little to no pie for us, the Y, the Millienials, the lost boys of the 21st Century.  We are this centuries forgotten generation. 

Our schools are improving, our colleges are attempting to fix the issues surrounding cost and accessibility, companies are looking at new ways to train employees. All this though leaves a generation in the margins, our children will inherit a educational, political, and environmental world that is much improved; our parents will retire from jobs of meaning  with no doubt of their social security ever being stopped.  This generation, my generation, has been told from the beginning that we will not have social security, and know on top of that the way we were supposed to prepare for the future (that being of course through ample education and devotion to corporations) is now also not delivering.  We are the forgottens.  The generation that will have to fix the self obsessed actions of our parents cohort and prepare the way for a positive cosmos for our children.  We though are the builders of this bright future.  When great projects are undertaken the workman though, the builders themselves, rarely see the completion of the greatness.  They rarely are able to bask in the awesomeness of their creation. 

Right now though we have yet to be given the tools for this undertaking,  right now we are still sitting at the gates, unmistakably taking up residence at the literally and physical doorways of power, Wall Street itself.  We, as a generation, as standing up and demanding to let in on the conversations, demanding that we are allowed the dream the dreams we were promised, demanding that we be heard, demanding that now is the time for this great undertaking.

Now it should be noted that I am no way an anarchist or agreeing with the outrageous demands that some associated with this movement have stated.  I am but a 20something that did every thing right all to end up nowhere near the promised lands that my teachers, my seniors, promised to me.  I still believe this promise land exist but now I must prepare for a much longer journey there, all the time knowing that few ever see the promise lands that set out for.  I hope that I can at least stand on a mountain and look beyond the last few obstacles that stand between the desert and the land of opportunity, or equality, of stability.  Once I believed that I would have opportunities to enjoy the realities of this land but now my  hope is to see at least have the confirmation, the certainty, that future generations will be able to enjoy.  My role is not that of resident but of trailblazer towards it. 

Confession of love...for a city.

So work has been going well.  I had some car problems last week but now everything is good and the car is driving better than ever.

With October already here I've been looking to the future a lot lately.  Right now I am at my dream job.  Every day I realize that almost everything I have ever wanted I have. While that feeling is one of amazement and pure joy there is also a nagging 'now what' that keeps tugging at my thoughts. My teaching contract expires in December and as of right now I have absolutely no idea where the future is taking me.

I've been toying around with the idea of going back to school. I am placing my hope that the economy rebounds sooner than later, but I did that same move in 2008 and ended up in a dead end job at a bankrupt company.  That move is what caused me to realize it was time to get my M.A.  So the same move again has me worried.

All in all though I am much more optimistic about the local economy than many other people seem to be.  Orlando is building itself up to be able to weather these economic storms much stronger than it did before and the next year will be one of massive job creation in the region.  With the Lake Nona Medical City finally coming online and the pre-recession hotel occupancy already back I am sure that 2012 will be a year of steady growth for the City Beautiful.

My concern though stems from finding where I fit into all this. I love Orlando.  I use love only because there isn't a stronger word than that to describe my infatuation with this region. Some people find it odd that I am actually a fanboy of a city.  But why not?  There are plenty of trekkies, star wars has the 501st Legion, and this weeks Apple news only shows the obsession that many people have with this company.  So if people can be fanboys of corporations and movies why not of cities?

Of course this lends itself to some difficulties in life. When one is obsessed with a city how does one look for career opportunities that are not within that region? As of right now the city I love seems to be giving not as much love back and that means even though I love it I may have to leave it.

Now one thing about obsessions though is that when someone has one they quickly become an expert on that topic.  Just as a trekkie could be able to tell you all the planets visited in the original series I too am able to quickly reference numerous projects around the Central Florida region. This knowledge lends itself to a certain depth of understanding that I struggle to find in many others.  And those that I do find it in seem to be as optimistic about Orlando as I am.  Now this may be all of us denying the realities of the economy or may be that we truly see something deeper, something more powerful than what shows up on the radar of economist and politicians.

I don't know what the future holds but I am hopeful that in the end my optimistic, albeit possibly childish, beliefs in Orlando economic rebound beyond that of what any economist would openly discuss lends itself to allowing me to fall more deeply in love with this beautiful city, the City Beautiful.

4 months, a life a new.

Wow, that went by fast!  Time to get back into blogging.  You know me, I have such a love-hate relationship with blogging.  I just get pulled back to it.  I feel so connected to this medium, for 8 years, off and on, back and forth, through the highs and lows. 

I sure left off in May in a low.  Life was getting rough for awhile there.  Freshly out of grad school, no job, and I started to fear that would be my new normal. 

But now let me pick back up.  So many changes in 4 months. 

Let me give you the short run down then I'll go into details about them.  Maybe I'll just give the overview tonight and go into the details in coming up entries.

So here is the run down of all that has happened.

Um, I was working at the coffee shop-yeah, I quit that, more on that later.

So now I've found a real career.  I'm a professor now at a school in the Tampa region.  I love it.  It's only an adjunct position through December.  Hopefully they offer me another contract for the spring semester.  For now though I am loving this job.  This is what I am meant to do.  I am part of a carpool to Tampa the three days a week I teach. 

I am still at UCF working in the sociology lab.  Sure the work there is few and far between but its good while it last.

My roommate Brian moved out and now we have a new awesome roommate S. from Calcutta.  It's a great cross-cultural experience. 

I'm still single but there is someone I been talking to.  Actually I have a few people I'm interested in but only one that really stands out.  I'll keep you informed how it all goes. 

I just left the coffee shop last week (thus the reason I have time to even write this).  I was working in Tampa three days a week and at the coffee shop 3-4 days a week.  It was rough and not needed.  I wanted to stay at the coffee shop but with their lack of ability to schedule me for less hours and the amount of energy it took out of me for such little pay.  I was not sleeping, going 40 or more hours on less than 4 hours of sleep.  Like I said, it was rough, but worth it.  I finally was able to focus my energy on teaching and education.  I teach sociology and even with all the education I've taken in these past years I still feel totally inadequate for teaching it.  I spend so much time researching and confirming what I think is the answer.  Each class day I focus both on the topics of our book and a different sociologist.  This means I spend a ton of time researching different sociologist and looking into how they link back to the topics that each class time focuses on.  I also included at least two videos in each class, I try to include a recent current news story, and some type of class interaction time.  This takes a massive amount of time.  I use the book website and base my powerpoints on theirs but it still takes a large amount of time to rewrite, improve, and adjust them with all the aspects that I like to see in the class. 

Well this is getting long and I've been trying not to fall asleep.  It was a rough day, ripped my pants, forgot my phone, had no gas when I thought I did, forgot to pack my computer charger, at least 6 accidents on the way to work, yeah insane day.  You know though, even with all the rough and insane that I must put up with, at the end of class, after the last student has left and before the first for the next class come in, there in that second I stop, look around, realize that I am living my dream and that no matter what life is good. 

Good night, thanks for reading, and welcome to the wormhole.