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Personal Update

Free Financial Advice from Eric and His Parents

Image credit: Maria Orlov on Pexels

Here’s a less serious post today. And at risk of this becoming a public dream journal (see this post from a few months ago), here’s the traumatic tale of an ill-fated trip through Copenhagen.

So there I was, driving my car down the crowded Danish streets. The thing about European road design is that they really like roundabouts. The Freudian unconscious within me recognized that fact, but failed to remember that Denmark is flatter than Amsterdam in a Belgian waffle iron, and so I found myself careening down a big-city hill as steep as any you’ll find in Seattle, but with roundabouts strung down the middle of the entire hill.

Now, anyone who’s played Mario Kart knows that you can’t go around a roundabout when there’s a perfectly good path over the middle of the roundabout–and when you’re going seventy miles an hour, there isn’t much choice either way. What followed was a harrowing roller coaster ride. I survived; the car survived; I looked around for police officers; there were none; I drove away scot-free, shaking in my sleeping bones.

Or so I thought, until a ticket for $77,000 from the Danish police showed up in my mailbox. My heart sank. Sure, I’d damaged some city property in my hasty driving, but this was utter financial ruin. I went to my parents, ready to beg for financial assistance, and explained my plight. Ever the pragmatist, my dad offered, “Well, it looks like you’re either going to have to get a job that pays more, or start spending less.” I awoke with bankruptcy pounding in my ears.

So there’s the free financial advice. You can consider that a legal endorsement and everything.

What’s new with me? Well, I’m still in school, on track for a December 2023 graduation with a BA in Linguistics (so far so good). Beyond that, the details are a little fuzzy. I plan on eventually going into academia, and I’ve been taking coursework in English teaching this semester in hopes of getting some practical skills and a background in second language acquisition in addition to just the liberal arts degree. My summer plans are still up in the air. I’ll also be moving apartments in the fall, which is always a gamble, but I enjoy the feeling of starting fresh in a new place.

I’ve been working on a couple songs that I hope to release pretty soon, though there never seems to be enough time to go around. It’s midterm season, which is no fun to write about, but does take up a good deal of time. I hope it all makes me a better teacher one day. ∎

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Personal Update

Fragments

I have a hard time with labels when it comes to mental health challenges. The CDC says that over 50% of Americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness or disorder in their life*, and that’s not even counting those who don’t get a diagnosis. Some people have it harder than others–I’m no stranger to that–but I think the many faces of what we in the 21st century call mental illness are a part of the human condition that every one of us has to deal with in some way or another. The world’s literature can attest to that.

For me, like anyone, some days are harder than others. The other day, I went for a walk and found myself looking up at the mountains and thinking about all the holes in my life. As I passed by a suburban house, I saw a family in the front yard. One of the kids tossed a soccer ball at her older sister, who was on crutches. She swung one of the crutches at the ball and knocked it flying.

I’m not sure why that moment touched me like it did. Perhaps it’s the simple story of life. Everyone bears wounds: some shallow, some deep. But we find a way to keep living, and do it beautifully.

*https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm

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Personal Update

Week Joseph

Every week has a personality, just like people (and offices). I think we ought to name them. This week felt like a Joseph. He’s got unkempt hair and an uncertain future and cologne like spring dew.

I realize that I’ve piled way too much onto my plate this semester. This week was a microcosm of that. There was class, work, late-night conversations with roommates, paying taxes, viewing apartments, a little bit of non-required reading, a lot of required reading, karaoke parties, deciphering rental contracts (did you know that “act of God” is an actual legal term used to describe a disaster that’s nobody’s fault?), band practice, poor time management, birthdays, COVID tests, X-bar theory of sentence structure, irresponsibly long Japanese practice sessions, tidying up, staying up late, dreams that should have lasted a little bit longer. The big highlight was taking Friday evening off to go see a concert that my friend Asa was performing in. Local music is fun; it feels so much more intimate to be able to go talk to the performers after a show.

I also finally got to see Jojo Rabbit, a movie I’ve been wanting to see ever since it came out in 2019. It’s a historical comedy coming-of-age film that treats one of my favorite themes: the irresistible, redemptive power of human connection. In his portrait of Nazi Germany, director Taika Waititi (who also plays the 10-year-old protagonist’s imaginary version of Hitler) demonstrates that satire need not be subtle to be biting; Waititi opts instead to magnify the fantastical. The film contains some deeply poignant scenes: in particular, a brilliant performance by Scarlett Johansson about the narratives we invent for ourselves, as well as a memorable sequence at the end that depicts the uncanny collision of war and childhood.

I really wish emotions could be kept in a jar and saved for later. The mornings where you wake up on the wrong side of the bed would be a lot more manageable if you could use a couple drops of yesterday’s Hamilton singalongs. But alas, there’s really no emotional middle ground when a week seems to contain a whole month’s worth of substance (no, Joseph, that wasn’t a fat joke). To sum up, I guess my advice to myself from last year was “speed up”, and Joseph’s advice to me now is “slow down”. Life is an all-you-can-eat buffet, and once you’ve filled up your plate, you have to keep eating until it’s gone. It’s the polite thing to do. ∎