Baby, It's a Violent World

I don't eat chicken. Never have. But I sure have counted a whole bunch of them over the years. Before they've even hatched.

Two summers ago, with my final year of college within touchable distance, I was suddenly filled with regret of not having completed the slew of activities and courses I had planned to pursue when I first set out on that four-year journey. Determined not to have twin feelings nine months later, I took a couple baby steps to change things. On what was the complete opposite of a whim (I had been thinking about doing it for six semesters), I applied for a columnist position at The Daily Pennsylvanian. I had a couple things going against me and was expecting (and fully prepared for) a rejection. When I got an acceptance call from the editor, I remember being overtaken by that awesome feeling of good news that comes out of nowhere. I enjoyed a brief stint as a "newspaper columnist."

The positions were semester-long and when second semester rolled around, I re-applied and immediately began planning my semester's worth of columns. Before I even heard back. I figured if the editors had been unhappy with my work, they would have told me. So you can imagine my utter and complete shock when I received a stone-cold rejection voicemail (the voice wasn't stone-cold, but all rejection is). I probably took it harder than I should have and dealt in my own passive-aggressive ways (refusing to read DP columns, for example). As much as I'd like to blame someone else, it was not the Daily Pennsylvanian, but my own unfounded expectations that had brought me down. I suppose that when it comes to my emotions, I am not especially risk-averse, though clearly, I should be.

It's these types of experiences that begin to suck the youthful, innocent idealism right out of you. What are those creatures in Harry Potter? Dementors? Like that. And as the stakes get higher (i.e., the dependency of your job), you begin to see that there is more and more risk involved with setting your heart on something, anything really, before it actually occurs. That notion of banking on life before it happens because hey, things usually work out anyway, suddenly sounds naive and childish. This becomes increasingly clear in the corporate world. Just take a moment and think about Facebook from the point of view of the Winklevoss twins.

In a design segment during job training, we were taught the importance of prototyping. Don't make that first mock-up too elaborate. Don't expect your design to be perfect the first time around. You're always going to have to make changes.

The "real world" is all about setting manageable expectations and readjusting them as you deem necessary. As Dennis Wholey once said, "Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting a bull not to attack you because you're vegetarian." Strive for the best. Dedicate yourself to success. But save yourself the grief and don't celebrate it prematurely. And hey, at the end of the day, an unexpected, well-earned success makes the story even meatier. That's good news -- even to a vegetarian.