"Woke up in London"

Music: Good Life – One Republic

Mood: Pondering my purpose

“Woke up in London yesterday

Found myself in the city near Piccadilly

Don't really know how I got here

I got some pictures on my phone

New names and numbers that I don't know

Address to places like Abbey Road

Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want

We're young enough to say”

Good Life by One Republic accurately describes my current life. It’s totally my widows down, shades on, stereo blasting song as I drive.

 As a consultant In my line of work, I have found myself all over the world, unsure of the time or my purpose. Yes, my current job sounds glamorous on paper, and yes, I have acquired a lot of points, miles, and status from traveling, but the true gauge of any life is happiness. I feel as though happiness is indefinite – you know it when you feel it/are feeling it. As metaphorical as it sounds, traveling has been the only time that I find myself able to reflect on life. As I write, I’m traveling from Los Angeles to Houston on my way to London for the week. Having just attended the wedding of a cousin who I haven’t really know, I find myself taking part of the flight not working, but rather, reflecting on life. Though some days I don’t feel like I’m living happiness; all things equal, I must admit that I am feeling it.

My favourite quote so far is “It’s good to have an end to journey to, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” Life has been a whirlwind of working and traveling as of recent – India, Houston, London, Paris, San Francisco, Des Moines, Los Angeles. 70+ hours of work, 6 hours of sleep on a good weeknight, drop in 10 pounds due to the lack of time to work out, the switch to vegetarianism. All these are data points to capture the last few months from a checklist standpoint, but life is more than just a checklist. My collection of experiences, feelings, emotions (or lack thereof) so far causes me to evaluate and reflect. The journey has been wonderful so far. I tell friends what I do and have experienced and I cannot believe what comes out of my mouth. Here I am, an almost-23 year old, one year out of college, working with large Fortune 100 clients doing valuable work and progressing thought to change the business. In the grand scheme of things, there are a few things of my journey to complain about – a few long hours, frustrating clients, annoying coworkers, lack of a consistent personal life – however, the journey, overall, has been splendid.

“Sometimes there's airplanes I can' t jump out

Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now

We are God of stories, but please tell me

What there is to complain about?”

Above, I intentionally scratched through what I originally wrote. “As a consultant”… I have a newly realized issue with defining myself as a consultant. I am not a consultant. I am a young professional who is consulting with a major consultancy. Despite the stresses and wrenches my job can throw into my life, I have decided to take an existential view my life; rather than defining myself by how I’ve had to react to the consulting job, I need to define myself by my journey. The journey is good so far and I have little fear that it will worsen.

“It’s good to have an end to journey to, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”

####

Edit: I wrote this post on the plane from LAX to IAH and intended to post it during my layover. That layover turned out to be 20 minutes so I'm now in London at the client site, and I finally have had time to post this.. so literally, I woke up in London yesterday (since it really is yesterday in the US but it's today in the UK).