Personal development inspired by William Hung. I’m not really sure if I would like the same kind of rise to fame myself, but he sure looks like one happy dude.
Sometimes, I think that alfredpang.com is on the road to becoming my own rendition of “She Bangs.” Anyhow…
If I have one advice for those of you that are on your Odyssey, go forth and do whatever you have been meaning to do. Whether it means auditioning on American Idol or going to Europe, that’s what being on the Odyssey is all about. What is one thing that you want to do, before you can say: right now, I can die happy. Looking backwards and regretting not doing things is a sign of a life not lived. Do you have a list of 100 things that you want to do before you die? I knocked a few items off my list during my Odyssey:
When I was a young lad still in high school, I lived and breathed video games. Naturally the dream job of choice one day would have to been a computer programmer. At the time, I was already a wiz at Turbo Pascal. Naturally, I wanted to move beyond that and start learning about languages and tools of the professionals.
So there I was one day at the library. I spent a lot of my youth in libraries. As usual, I started with the computer section (in the 005 or so part of the Dewey Decimal system). I was looking through the titles on the shelf when a man started talking to me. I had no idea that he was even there until he asked me, “Are you learning to program?”
I said yes and told him of my dreams to get into games programming. Then he continued on, “You have to learn C if you want to program games for a living.” Then he went on to tell me about his career. I don’t remember much of what he said, except one thing. “I had a nervous breakdown and took a year off work.” He didn’t look like a psycho of the sorts but that threw me for a bit of a loop.
I didn’t think too much of it at the time, but I did take his recommendation. I dove deep into learning C. I wrapped my head around much of the concepts easily, until the chapter on pointers. Eventually I made the mental breakthrough to understand it.
Looking back, I was glad that he took the time to tell me how to get started. All that work into learning C has paid off. However, I think that really wasn’t the advice that he wanted to give me. Perhaps I looked too bright-eyed and innocent, and he didn’t want to burst my bubble. Sometimes, the truth about how the world really works is just not so easy to talk about. It is so much easier to just have safe discussions and conventional advice. I thought that I was already pretty radical at the time as I really didn’t know anyone else in my peer group (with a few exceptions), who pursued programming with just as much fervor.
Was he trying to give me a warning about the path that I would follow? I think that I understand now that he really didn’t have a nervous breakdown. I think that eventually we come to a point where we just need to really question ourselves: why are we doing what we are doing; are the things I am doing with my life congruent with my values; what things are important to me. It really didn’t matter what your calling is, this line of thinking or “life reset” happens to a lot of people. It is during these Odyssey years that we pursue the goal of knowing thyself.
Some people change as a result of the Odyssey. Other people go back to the way they used to be, with a clearer purpose and sense of themselves. I can’t help but think about Michael Jordan’s first return to basketball, after a year of being in minor-league baseball. That’s the kind of return from Odyssey that I want to have for myself. I so want this blog to be an artifact of my Odyssey and catapult me into the next phase of life.
One of my friends sent me an interesting link. (Original link was New York Times, but you will need a login.) The Odyssey Years is defined as by the writer as:
The decade of wandering that frequently occurs between adolescence and adulthood … .
When I finished my first degree, I went straight into the workforce, just happy to be making the big time money (well, when you compare it to minimum wage jobs). I was done learning about electromagnetics and ready to start saving up for a new car. I got the car but I started having thoughts of fancy. Like: why didn’t I ever consider medical school, or what about the childhood dream of becoming a math teacher? Why am I living in Vancouver when clearly the industry is happening in the Silicon Valley? Just an inkling of wanderlust of the grandest kind.
I started seeing some of my friends take their odysseys. Some were going back to school to get into a different field. Some were travelling around the world. Some were just busy getting a good beating from the school of hard-knocks. I felt like I was being left behind.
Long story short, I eventually caved into to my desire for an odyssey and here I am, blogging for my life. I started later than most people I know but I made it right?
I’m saving the long story for a future post. In the meantime, thank you for still reading! Your comments and feedback is important to me!
