Pearls of Wisdom
Last week, I asked my intern to complete a mundane task, and he did a half-assed job. It brought me back to my own days as an intern, when I thought such tasks were beneath me, and that my supervisor failed to tap into my brilliance. One time, he asked me to find the addresses for a long list of names, using the phone book. I did it, but I didn’t include zip codes, since they weren’t listed in the book. My boss looked at my work and said: “Dori, we can’t send out this mailing without the zip codes. Somebody, at some point, is going to have to find them. It might as well be you.”
I told my intern this same story, realizing it has stuck with me for the last eight years.
Some additional pearls of wisdom, that emerged upon reflection …
“Don’t wish any of your life away.” My friend A.K. used to say this to me, quoting his “hip grandmother”, in response to my repeated longings for the future ( “I can’t wait to have a better job”; “I can’t wait to be married”; “I can’t wait to have my own apartment”). I now realize it’s a common saying, but I still attribute it to “Gammy”.
“Life deals you a hand of cards. You play the hand. Regardless of how it turns out, you get another hand eventually.” This is the philosophy of a guy who lost his long-time girlfriend to cancer. The idea isn’t “you can’t control which single hand of cards you get”. I like to think, as he does, that life is a series of infinite possibilities, and not one single set.
“Your whole life doesn’t have to be magnificent. There are magnificent seasons, and ordinary seasons.” My friend N., assuring me that my current lack of professional magnificence is not necessarily permanent.
“Being part of a family, or a friendship, isn’t just about sharing good times,” said my mom when I bitched about how my long-anticipated family visit was ruined by the poorly-timed death of my uncle.
When I complained about how everyone else is married/happy at work/buying a house, an old roommate used to say “You don’t have the option of living anyone else’s life, so it’s pointless to make comparisons.”
“Anything worth doing is hard.” Also, “Anything worth doing is worth doing well.” I read both of these statements somewhere.
“A hot shower and a good meal makes almost any situation better”, says my dad, almost every time I go through some kind of crisis. I usually get annoyed when he says this (Don’t you see how serious this is?), but it’s true.
“Think of how fast a day goes by”, says my mom, when I’m dreading a one-time stressful event, like a test, meeting, or interview.
Posted by Dori at 2:31 PM
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