Peer Pressure or Idolatry!?
Peer Pressure or Idolatry!?
I'm 23.
Two of my best friends are Wayne ( best friend from Junior school ), and Martina ( best friend from Uni ). I have a great deal of respect for both of them - Wayne is diligent, and always hardworking. He's got through a series of crap jobs, but always worked hard at them, and done them with a smile, and he's never been unemployed for long, always picking up whatever's going, to tide him over and sort out financials. Most recently, he has settled in a long term job for an insurance agency.
Martina, has been working in internal PR for the past year, and is currently looking for a new job, since her contract runs out in Feb, and the job she's in currently has no future prospects, so she'ld prefer to move onto something more now. I also respect her because she has two degrees ( was at Uni for 8 years! =P Two degrees, and one masters! ) and has written her own academic book, published by Vienna University Press ( I think it's a Media Studies book about those costume drama films/adaptations of books ).
But at the same time, I see both of them struggling.
Wayne's work is underpaid, he has to travel out of town to get to work, and his work won't pay his travel expensives. He has to cover costs not just for him, but his girlfriend and her child too, and every single month it is tight, with panic often caused by unforeseen things such as the washing machine breaking down, or things like this.
Meanwhile, Martina is stressing over the need for a new job. Although her wage is far more impressive than Wayne's, she's based in London, and everything costs so much more. In addition, her partner, doesn't contribute as much as her, being a journalist and lecturer, I believe both roles are part time. They also want to move to a better flat, with a boiler that actually works (!?), and just before Christmas, Martina was worried that if she didn't find a good new job, she might be at risk of having to return to Austria, although she loves London, and her boyfriend Richard. =P Eeek!
My point is - here are two people I look up to, and respect, but I also see them struggling.
Then I look in the opposite direction.
I'm 23.
Both Wayne and Martina are older than me - Wayne by about four months,
Martina by seven years.
Adam is younger than me.
Okay, he's not my best friend, more an industry acquaintance, who I was fortunately enough to meet last year when in Los Angeles. He started his own company at 17. His videogames website goes from strength to strength. His clients include AOL, Orange, and Vodaphone, whom he supplies with video footage and trailers of the latest games. He's 22, and has just been profiled in MCV magazine's "30 under 30" feature, profiling the young stars of the videogames industry - for the second time(!).
In addition, and mostly inspiring this post, I had realised recently, I had been getting James Temperton from Cubed3 - who once helped me pitch games columns for local newspapers along with Jon Salisbury of ToyNews Network - muddled up with Franklin Huges - a Cube-Europe contributor. Realising this mix up, I though I would pop along and see how Tim Symon's Cube-Europe website was doing, as I hadn't seen Tim on the GamesPress forums for ages, merely James Temperton....So I type in the old URL, and there is a letter, firstly announcing that Tim had launched a new website - revo-europe.com to replace cube-europe, but also that the main responsibilities for the site were being handed down to someone else - and he himself - had been given a job in the industry he simply couldn't refuse. =P What job be this? A quick google search revealled his blog, where, at the age of 23, it's shown he's left the Netherlands, to go to Germany to work for Nintendo of Europe, as product analysis. Not entirely sure what a product analysis is - some new term for playtester!? I really don't know. But sounds like a serious new job, and you can catch up with Tim at his blog here: http://www.timsymons.com/
So - back to that age thing again.
I'm 23.
I look in one direction - and see those older, struggling on with painful real life dilemas.
I look in another direction - and I see those younger or the same age, already further ahead of me.
This is not a criticism - they've earnt what they've achieved. But it is a concern. A concern that I'm not where I should be yet. And an increased resolve to take inspiration from their achievements, and push harder towards achieving more.
The only problem is that my day-to-day reality, is rather more slow paced, than my mind's racing thoughts of ambition. So I plod along, with nothing but faith, and perseverence to see me reach a much desired end.