learn to pivot

 Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

- Mark Twain

I originally titled this post “Quit yo’ complainin’.” Then I thought, “Well, that’s hypocritical – me complaining about people complaining.” So I ate my own words and renamed it to what it is now: learn to pivot.

Tech Crunch: 9 Things Every Entrepreneur Needs to Learn From Woody Allen

Build confidence, not blame, from experience.

I also stumbled across this blog, specifically this post:

James Altucher: 7 Things Happen to You When You Are Completely Honest. Entertaining good stuff.

materialistic and wasteful

Everyday, I’m reminded how much I don’t know and how much I’ve still got to learn and relearn.

This afternoon, my landlord sent one of his sisters to my house to retrieve a desk that has been here since I moved in. In fact, I’ve been using it to organize my clothes. At first, this irked me. I thought, “I’ve been using this the entire time that I’ve been here and renting this house. I’ve only got a few more months left. Does my landlord really need this now??”

I moved all of my belongings out of it, placed them on my bed, and helped his sister move the thing out of the house. My clothes remained on my bed for a few hours after which I moved them onto a sheet that I had laid on the floor.

Being the ever optimistic, I tried to look at the situation positively. “How?” I thought.

Then, as I was moving my clothes to the floor, it occurred to me: “I have more clothes to give away/leave behind than I thought – yes!!” Granted, some of the items are clothes that were given to me, so I will happily pass them along to the next Volunteer, or Moroccan, whoever claims them in a few months.

This made me start making a trash pile for things I could immediately start tossing out. Swiya b swiya/imik s imik, I will begin discarding the things I no longer need, i.e., used sheets of paper, old posters, etc.

It feels good to get rid of all this….”stuff.”

Peace Corps has taught me to live with less (though I admittedly still have more compared to the people in my community). I hope to accumulate even less wherever I go and whatever I do next.

words of wisdom, app’d for commitment

Everything is practice.

- Pele

NYT: Advice From Life’s Graying Edge on Finishing With No Regrets

Mashable is clearly thinking ahead to Valentine’s Day, as it’s been posting articles related to dating and relationships lately. Two in particular caught my eye: First, for those in the dating scene, I recommend reading 10 Tips for Dating in the Social Media Age; second, for those in long-distance relationships, check out 36 Digital Tools for Long-Distance Relationships.

 

Happy Amazigh New Year

I had an unexpectedly wonderful evening. I love it when this happens.

Little Fatima invited me over to dinner with her family to celebrate the Amazigh New Year. Yup, you read it right: Amazigh. Not Moroccan, not Islam but Amazigh. That’s my Berber pride for ya, woot woot!

I showed up late (oops!) but still made it in time to partake in dinner. Afterwards, I hung out with her family and watched TV for a bit. We mostly watched soap operas. Seeing as the programming was in Darija, I followed along with what I could.

Genuine laughs were shared.

Sigh…to know that all this will be different in a few months is…to realize that the chapter of my life called “Peace Corps service” will soon be on its last page.

Asian-Americans serving (the US) in the Middle East

Daily Mail: Asian-American soldier was forced by comrades to crawl 100m on gravel while being pelted with rocks hours before he killed himself

As an Asian-American serving in the Middle East, I was saddened to learn about how Private Danny Chen was mistreated by his fellow Americans. Awful beyond awful beyond awful.

Reading about what happened to Danny Chen led me to reflect on my Peace Corps service. As my previous posts have shared, being an ethnic American in Morocco, I’ve been confronted with my own set of challenges – on the Morocco front, on the American front, on the Peace Corps front. Even with a few months left of service, I still encounter ignorance and bigotry.

Even though Peace Corps and the army are both US government agencies, serving in the Peace Corps is not comparable to serving in the military. With that said, and even with all the inefficiencies that I’ve encountered throughout service, here’s what I realized:

For almost two years, Peace Corps Volunteers have been my family. Through thick and thin, there have always been good people standing next to me. It goes without saying that there are different personalities among PCVs. Even so, there is a true sense of camaraderie among PCVs. It’s terrible to think that this isn’t the case among other groups of Americans serving together overseas.

Post dedicated to Danny Chen.