March 30, 2007

• SHIFT
  March Birthdays

  

   [Priceless]

  

   [21 is a beautiful thing]

  

  [Hold My Hand]

  

   [Quick, I've fallen and can't get back up]

  

   [Daddy's little girl]

  

   [Kart Kaos]

  

   [Who said adults can't have fun too?]

  March has indeed been a very eventful month for me.  My sister turned 21 (dun dun dun)  and it was my little cousin’s 5th and both were a birthday hit!  Loads of fun, good company of family and friends and hella little kids hahah!  Children are such a joy to be around and their unjaded lives bring hope to the adult life that life is still fun and bliss if we keep a child like faith perspective.  But the reality is for many of us is not always what a child sees.  Children remind us of ourselves and how we used to be and bring that one smile to our face while all day we bare worries, thoughts and so many other things that complicates an adults mind.  My cousin’s birthday bash was held at a local skating ring that I used to go to when I was a child and to my surprise it still looked the same.  I swear nothing in that place changed except for the workers of course but I contemplated how years ago I used to be in the exact same shoes as a handful of my cousins and look at where I am today.  Standing around capturing their lives in photographs =)!  Life moves quick…so Live While You Live, thats my motto!

  Well, I’ll title his post…SHIFT!  Basically I need a shift or change in my life.  Something needs to give but deciding what needs to give isn’t always clear and easy.  For many of you who follow me on my life journey you’ll know that I’ve been on the job hunt for some time now.  It’s been about 7 months since I started applying and about 4 since I graduated from college.  My words cannot utter my frustration with this process.  You can tell me what you want to tell me about needing to be more patient but I feel so shafted here for opportunity and limited to being challenged.  I live in Sacramento, and in my honest opinion it’s a boring place with not much to really do and whats worse is the job market here sucks literally.  If you live in this region of Northern California you either work for the state, local govt., county, board of education or you are private small business owner like my family!  Now the only thing appealing to me in this area would be owning my own business.  My application is all over the state of California for govt. positions and boy let me tell you they sit on their tush all day when it comes to the job application process.  Thats ok though, I know its a process and they probably have millions upon millions of paper work to deal with so a resume is pretty much blah.  My attempts to even get noticed through application after application to follow ups and still no cigar.  I’ve had one interview with the state which upon that I will be ranked but still no response after my first interview.  Jobs like this you are test on a nondiscriminating system where you are ranks and scored and depending on those scores you will make it in for another testing or interview.  Many levels of screen yes but its the govt so what do you expect.  Sacramento has little to no legit firms to work for.  I’m all over careerbuild.com and monster.com and all I get are these little temp agency and places they don’t even provide legit links to where I can research more about the companies I see available. 

  So where am I going with all this.  Well, Sacramento has a limited job market, marketing and advertisement is not the place for it and nor is the private sector of jobs.  Every job or company I’ve looked at that I’ve been interesting in for the most part are not located in a reasonable driving distance (under a hour).  My reason for such a limited scope for job searches is because of my strong tie to my family.  I love them very much and I’ve become a valuable asset to my family business so me leaving would hurt them I know but at the same time I feel like I could be disabling my opportunities and what I could become.  I know though working I will learn a lot about things and especially about myself more but marketing yourself sometimes just doesn’t seem to be enough.  Maybe I’m not doing it well enough, maybe I am.  I’ve tried jobs in the public and private sector here in the Sacramento region and its just been slooooooooooooooooooooow.  Housing market is down, taxes are finalizing and yah perhaps people are tight and the hiring process is in blah mode right now but its simply frustrating.  I don’t even get response for position doing  a desk job.  I just shake my head but at the same time I feel humbled by my experiences here.  Funny thing is a lot of things thing I am interested in there just seems to be no market for it here.  Do you think I am too picky?  I do have some integrity when it comes to job searching, I want to make sure its a company I support to and that I find some value in.  I don’t want to work for something to pay the bills that I don’t care a bit about.  I’m not saying I have to adore the company but hey at least I have to like aspects of what they do somewhat.  This whole week I’ve meditated on job situations and prayed about it a lot and I’m going to start applying elsewhere in hopes of more job opportunities in which if they respond I will go.  I’ll give Sacramento another chance but I’m going to draw the line somewhere.  If I’m going to make something of my life I have to go out there and make something of it because it sure as hell isn’t going to come to me. 

  Ultimately, my long run goal is to be my own boss and become my own business but things like this take time and don’t happen over night which is why I still need another job but while the idea of working for someone else isn’t all that ideal for me I know it will give me some more backbone and further direction as to where the Lord leads me.  Everday I am reminded of this quote and it almost cycle through my head on my every thought…“work full time on my job and part time on my fortune.”  What a concept!  I don’t know how many of you view life but I don’t want just an ordinary life or just some comfortable and unchallenging life style.  I want to be a agent that is willing to learn, change, grow and become something more than what I am today.  I see people everyday at my job who come in not happy with their lives for various reason and people who are working their job they hate and it drives me more to pursue the things I love and become great at the things I value in my life.  I hear it all the time, a job is  a job and 85% of Americans hate their job or had no choice and you know what I say to that. NO!  I know I’ll be on rough roads and its not going to be easy but I’m determined to be that other 15% if you are with me say YES if no thats ok.  I struggle in life all the time in all that I do.  Most of the time things seem to take the long route for me but I plan on crossing the finish line.  I only live once and mediocrity is not a option for me.  I’m not about to let the world write the book for my life and besides if the world did,  Id tell you not to read it because I didn’t write it. =)  I’m not the best writer so maybe God will write it for me.  My Only Hope, My Eternal Perspective, thats all that matters.  May You Be Glorified! 

  “Greatness is not a function of circumstance.  Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice.”  – Jim Collins

  Thanks for reading,

  Steve

  • 4:05 am
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