Lunch was probably the highlight of my day. I ate with with a very influential Washingtonian who didn't know what he wanted to do with his life until he was 34. He called himself at 34 a "kid"--just think of being a kid at 34, it seems so ancient! He fell into his current job through a serious of flukes of fate and accidents, and it's comforting to know that road can be curvy and rough, but if we do our best it will be rewarding in the end. Setbacks are more like adventures, and I really do think "bad luck" is just a way of redirecting us. If we make the best of every situation--how can we go wrong?
I came to Washington to try and figure out what I wanted to do. I started this blog to record some of those thoughts, and I rediscovered how much I love writing. Working in a high-stress environment, I've been very lucky to be around people who truly enjoy their job, realize it's not everything, and have had amazing, crazy, and inspirational career paths. You can have fun and do good things all in once--and end up 600 miles from where you started too.
I'll leave you with Conan, I'm not sure I could sum up what I've learned any better:
All I ask of you is one thing, and I'm asking this particularly of young people who watch: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism- for the record, it's my least favorite quality, it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen. I'm tell you, amazing things will happen.
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