Life is a Symphony of Epiphanies

I feel a little bit like Dave Chappelle right not. Not because I'm funny or rich or anything like that. I took sooo long to write my first post that I got to marinate over it quite a bit. It was quality for that reason and some people enjoyed it. Wow, talk about pressure. I need to come with quality material each time not just verbal diarrhea? Yikes people.

Speaking of pressure (awkward segue to weird you out), what are you doing with your life? Why are you wasting time reading this right now? You just finished complaining about your job on AIM, so why are you still there? I have had the last couple months to sit at home (where I am supposedly applying for jobs in a rent free environment) and I have had too much time to really marinate on life. When I say marinate, I am not just talking about a zesty Chaka's Mmmmm Sauce or orgasmic Soy Vay original recipe. (don't mess with Soy Vay Wasabi.. why change a good thing?) I am talking about some straight Southern, passed down ten generations through oral tradition type marinade. So with this bone suckin' marination process, have I come to any mind-blowing revelations? A few that I may write about later but one question continues to slowly eat away at my mind similar to the way you slowly eat away at those cold fries when you should just let the server take them away. The question my friends, what is vloves purpose in life?

About a year ago I had an intense conversation with my parents about where my life was going. My parents are very practical. They want me to find a good job (good = pays a lot... is secure.... and in the Bay Area) and they want me to get married and pop out lots of babies. After all my parents are Indian so they subscribe to that three step process. Anyway during the conversation I brought up the possibility of volunteering in India for a year or two and living in a village. Were they excited? Well, they chuckled a little and didn't take my proposition very seriously. They followed that up with the traditional importance of money lecture. I was very peeved. So I had to break out the heavy hitter. I verbalized in a booming voice, "The thing is if my life is just a stable job, marriage with children, living in a nice house and going to and from my stable job (this is ideal to a lot of parents I think).... I will be very disappointed in myself. Then I looked at them and said, “I consider that a failure.” They were shocked, confused and didn't know what to say. Anyway I went on to explain how India is a place that I am going to have an impact on and I feel like my purpose is bigger than normal expectations.

Don't get me wrong here. A great family life is of course a huge goal of mine. I would be very fortunate and blessed to just complete that goal. But aren't you and I expected to do more? I don't mean expected in terms of others expectations. I mean shouldn't our own expectations of self be way higher? Immigrant parents came here to create a better life for their children. They worked hard and created a life of stable jobs, marriages with children, and comfortable homes to cultivate our generation.

A family tree is just that, a tree. A tree grows and evolves and in its simplest form reaches toward the sky. So why are so many of us so complacent on the ground? Why are so many of us comfortable all the time? I am very uncomfortable (because I'm socially awkward) but more so because I am deathly afraid of mediocrity and complacency. I don't want to just be successful like our parents generations. Many of us have been given that base success just through our upbringing. Just like our parents gave up everything to help us get to the next level, shouldn't we look around us and help the next generation continue on to an even higher level? Shouldn't the impact of every consecutive generation be exponentially larger than the previous generation?

I've always believed that India has more to offer the world than most countries. I've seen the potential in language, culture, food, and almost every other facet of life. Yet India has sooo far to go to harness that potential. Wouldn't it be something for me, the son of immigrants that left India to give me a better life in America, to go back to the Motherland and help Indian children get to my level or how about even higher? What if I passed on the favor my parents did for me? Isn’t that the least I can do? Yet this vision of mine is just one dream in one head of one member of our generation. What’s yours? And what about the guy or girl sitting next to you? How is each one of us going to grow that family tree into the sky?

Let's not be complacent. Let's not get comfortable with mediocrity. Let's offer the next generation even more care than our parents gave us. After all, our parents worked hard to create a life of stable jobs, marriages with children, and comfortable homes to cultivate our generation. Well friends, it's time for the harvest.