The purpose of having dreams

Blah, 2016 did not start well for me. I mean, all the problems I’ve had so far have been first world problems, but since I live in a”first world” I tend to consider them to be actual problems.

I’ve been stuck deliberating at what point will I give up on my dreams. When will I just say, you know what, I’m done. I am done trying. My dreams of becoming a published author (Idk, self-published on Amazon just doesn’t have that ring to it), dreams of becoming a good illustrator (not great, just good- even solid is ok with me), dreams of having all the stories I keep having in my head read by hundreds of people.

They are ambitious dreams to have, I realize that. Not many are fortunate enough to ever get loyal readers and most of their books, their stories end up in a folder called “my book” on their computer where it sits as a sore reminder of unfulfilled dreams.

However, I realized this the other day as I was jotting down the first few lines in my new diary (it’s really pretty, a little old school but I don’t mind it)- I realized that succumbing to reality is why you should never let go of your dreams. Perhaps you should modify them, change them, alter them, make a few alterations here and there but no one should ever give up on their dreams. Because if you give up on your dreams, you let reality win- and reality can be so dull, so cruel and so factual. And I refuse to ever be dull or cruel or factual. Ever.

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How is London not the city of my dreams?

Out of curiosity, lack of desire to work and simply genuine boredom I surfed the web the other day, dreaming of my move to London. Why London you ask? I saw a musical there once and it was so good that I generalized that London is the city I should be in (not much of a logic, I know).

I browsed the sites for jobs, and I gasped at the salary ranges. 15,000- 30000 pounds were the most common salaries I saw! Of course, executives and managers had a better pay, but for an average shmo like me I couldn’t imagine living on that salary. I mean, simple room sharing (yay, it’s college time again) costs are starting 600 pounds a month. Rooms! I am an adult and I want to have my own damn studio, even if a tiny, tiny one! And those go for at least a 1000 pounds a month. So you’re telling me I cash in roughly 2000 pounds a month and more than half goes for my rent, not to mention the cost of food, transportation etc? Even commuting to London and finding a place on the outskirts seems so darn expensive. Do regular people in London ever save any money? How is such a low pay possibly worth living in London? You can’t go out and do things because you can’t afford them. So what is it, the prestige of saying you live in London?

As I was browsing this, I thought of the post I saw on Humans of New York, where a guy works 13 hours a day and he can’t save a lot of money. I kept thinking to myself: why do you stay there then? Wouldn’t it make sense to move to a less expensive place and save up there? And maybe work 10 hours instead of 13? Not have your wife worried about how you are going to pay for things?

People want different things in life, but I sadly realized my move to London seems to be unfeasible for time being. I can’t forgo my privacy, the fact I have a house (which, before you chip in, it’s really average sized and nothing fancy and a common thing here in Orlando), I don’t have to live like I am in college again and I save some money in addition to the expenses. Livin the dream, I guess, yeah?

Does you, dear readers, have a fantasy place in mind? Or do you perhaps live in London? New York? Leave a comment below, tell me I am wrong and that I should move to London! 🙂

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Quality chocolate for .50 cents

Alright, alright. You can’t get it in the American stores. For many reasons, chocolate in U.S. is not only expensive but the presence of cacao is terrifically low and sugar content abysmally high. But that’s how we like it I guess.

I liked it that way too until I discovered a German store called Lidl (Lidl is pretty much a copycat of Aldi or kind of like Dollar General with better quality products). There are many things in my life that bring me joy and finding great chocolate for the price of a hamburger at McDonald’s on Wednesday’s is one of them.

Lidl is/was a shabby-looking store with a strong warehouse feel. Nothing fancy or classy about it- but Germans love it. Almost instantly as I walked in, a 100 g (3.5- Ounce) of chocolate caught my eyes. Wrapped in an appealing, yet simple wrap tempted me from the shelves. Milk Chocolate for 50 cents. (Mind you, this was like two years ago so the price really hasn’t gone up at the time of writing.) This chocolate wasn’t expired or poisonous. It didn’t give you painful diarrhea. It wasn’t like godawful Hershey’s with their butter substitutes and whatnot. This was genuinely good chocolate. Because it was so cheap, I had to hoard it. I couldn’t pass on such a deal! I bought different kinds: the alpine milk one, the one with nuts, raisins, the white chocolate kind. I thought I died and went to heaven.

Needless to say, all that chocolate was gone before I could bring back any to the States (so I had to go back to the store and buy more). I miss that chocolate. I genuinely miss it. It crosses my mind specially as I wander down our Publix section or when I shop on Amazon. Good chocolate for little money does exist. It exist in the world of the good ole Germany. Now, who in Germany is reading this and is willing to ship some over to me? 😀

P.S: Thanks for reading my post! Leave a comment on what product you miss! 😀

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Link to my book on Amazon (since I haven’t posted one in like half a year 😉

Sometimes, it’s all about luck

My entire life I was taught if you work hard, you will get far. And guess what? I did. I worked hard, got good grades in school. Went to college, didn’t drink much or cause trouble. I worked during my college years and did internships…. the whole nine yards.

And then it was time to apply for a job. I got a good offer resulting from my internship. I came home, celebrated. The fruits of my hard work paid off!

But then luck came to take a dump on my celebrations.

A colleague X, who had a history degree and a measly work experience, got a job through connections- not only did the X get a job without any effort, X got a better pay to… and X flaunted the pay right in my face.

I was wide awake for hours.. I kept thinking, why and how is it fair that X does better than me? What happened to the work hard and you will get far?

Well, years later, X kept getting higher raises. Abnormal raises. I don’t know how. And no, there is no… “and then X did something and X got fired.” No, X is still climbing the corporate ladder. Successfully. Making ever more money. Hiring friends.

And I just don’t get it. But I hope, one day, I will understand.. that sometimes in life…. you got to have luck. I can work hard all I want but if I am at the wrong place at a wrong time… there’s nothing I can do.

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