Those Millennials

About a month ago I was having a conversation with a friend and she posed the question, “What do I think about working with Millennials?” 

There are not too many questions that throw me for a loop, but that one did, and here is why. I am a millennial. Or at least by the broad ranges the Internet has on the different generations, I am mostly a millennial.   

Somehow, I don’t think her question was about what my thoughts were with working with my own generation.  That would be silly.  I think the core of her question was, “What do you think about working with a younger generation, whatever it is called?”

My diplomatic answer is that there are pros and cons with working with every generation. 

As with any generation, I think that the key to working with them is to be adaptable to the human factor.  I find that the older I get, there are a few things that hold true no matter the generation.

1. Respect - If you don’t respect others abilities, idea’s and time, you can’t expect them to do the same.
2. Motivation- People are motivated by different things, based off where they are in life. An age group does not define motivation. It defines likely common goals. Getting to know people will help you understand their motivation behind actions.  
3. Age is not a definition -An age group does not define a person. Grouping people into age groups and defining character traits is much like saying that everyone that is born under the Gemini zodiac has the same characteristics. While some of the aspects may be true, it does not hold true for all. 
4. Education- Successful people never quit learning.  There is always something to learn, that sparks interest. The method of learning may change with each generation, but the thirst to do better or learn something doesn’t change. 

What do you think?

Postive Alphabet - A- Z

It is not uncommon knowledge in my family that we suffer from depression.  Not everyone wants to admit it, or even acknowledge it, but it is true.  Sometimes it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel and to know that everything is going to be okay eventually. I mean Okay, and not great, no one can promise great.  

A year ago, I started a project for a positive alphabet.  An alphabet to remind myself that it is okay and to try and be positive. I know that just telling someone to think positive, is not actually an proven method to come out of depression. However, I think that this helped me a little bit get out of the suffocating hole of endless crippling self doubt and helped flip a switch in my brain to focus on the words instead of the shadows deepen in the recesses.  These words work for me, and when I have that pitch black moment where my skin feels like it everything seems futile, I try remember what each letter of the alphabet stands for.  You wouldn't think that 26 letters would be difficult, but it can be.  

I know that not every one will agree with these words, and I hope they don't.I hope that they come up with their own alphabet that makes them step back from the edge.  They might not make sense for everyone, but they make sense for me.   What would be on your positive alphabet?

• A -Altruistic
• B- Bibliophile
• C- Candid
• D- Dependable
• E-Empowering
• F- Forgiving
• G- Gemutlichkeit
• H- Human
• I-  Imperfect
• J- Judicious
• K- Keen
• L- Loyal
• M- Morphing
• N-  Natural
• O- Original
• P-  Plucky
• Q- Quality
• R- Resilient
• S- Sincere
• T-  Tenacious
• U- Unique
• V-  Vibrant
• W- Worthy
• X-  XO
• Y-  Youthful
• Z-  Zesty

For those that are frequent flyers on this blog. Yes, I had posted part of this alphabet previously.  I was not happy with the post, and felt it was more appropriate to update and repost. 

Resurrection

Do you believe in resurrection? 

Resurrection: 
(Noun)

1.  a supposed act or instance of a dead person coming back to life
2. belief in the possibility of this as part of a religious or mystical system
3. the condition of those who have risen from the dead: we shall all live in the resurrection
4. the revival of something: a resurrection of an old story

When I was a little girl living in California, my mother used to have this plant called a Resurrection Plant.  To me it looked like a baby tumble weed and I was very confused as to why she kept it in her closet.  One day, she pulled the plant out and put it in a small dish of water.  Slowly as it absorbed water it uncurled and laid completely flat. A little while longer it went from a dull brown to a dull green.  More time passed and you would never have recognized it from the dead looking thing it had been hours before. 

My mother explained that she kept the plant in her closet as a reminder. A reminder that sometimes things  in life can look bleak, dry and terrible and it can be that way for a long time. And just when all hope seems lost, it can rain. When the sweet relief of rain comes, it might take a while to uncurl from that dry and terrible mess, but when you do it is hard to believe you were ever in that situation. 

I am a long way away from that little girl I used to be.  It is almost full blown winter and my husband brought in my aloe plant. It looks terrible. He asked me if I was going to revive it once again, because every year I seem to forget it, until it is too cold and wet for cactus and it looks like it is going to turn into slime. Then every year I seem to bring it back to life bigger and healthier than it was the year before.  It is almost my own personal resurrection plant.  Except possibly slimier than a Rose of Jericho. That leave me to one question.

Do you believe in resurrection?

Spawning Gift

In the search for awesome patches for my husbands battle jacket , we have run across a wide variety of patches.   I could easily go broke trying to buy everything that caught my eye. Not every single cool patch out there is destined for his jacket, but some of them are just too unique to pass up.  I have found that Etsy has become a dangerous thing for me to explore.  The important thing when looking at patches is to have a purpose for it.  A patch does no good sitting in a drawer.

The influx of cool patches out  there and the rapidly decreasing room on the battle jacket inspired me for my friend Lizzy's celebration of spawning gift.   (I am talking about baby shower.) I prefer to gift something homemade or heartfelt that has a unique blend of personality and usefulness.  You can not clothe a boy child in patches, but you can put cool patches on his clothes, which is almost the same thing. 

Armed with golden advice that children grow, and it is okay to gift something they won't need right away, I pillaged a local clothier for plain polos for mini humans.  I was in luck as there was a holiday sale, and purchased several basic colors. I then proceeded to search for the best patches that would reflect personality and humor of the recipient. The one thing you want to keep in mind with any patch project is the size of the patch versus the size of the object it is going on. There were several patches that I loved that were simply too big and had to be filed away for a future project. Deciding on which patch to get was the hardest part. 

I highly recommend this gift idea.  It is relatively simple if you know how to use and iron and sew, and also completely customizable to the intended party.  Just remember that Etsy is a dangerous place, and it is easy to find really unique patches.

Hello From the Other Side

Do you ever get a song stuck in your head and it just plays over and over and over again and slowly drives you insane? I might not be to the insanity part yet, but it is getting close.  Mostly because this song is a radio hit, and several people at my job site have it as a ring tone, so that even if the song is not on my mind, it will find a way in. The sad thing is that I had even liked the song for a little bit; I just don’t like the things it makes me think about.  

Hello by Adele

I checked the calendar and it is full moon, which probably explains why I am melancholy over things that can’t be changed and getting randomly teary eyed at my desk when the song pops up on my Pandora station. Excel spread sheets don’t normally bring me to tears, despite popular belief.  

Hello, it's me
I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet
To go over everything
They say that time's supposed to heal ya
But I ain't done much healing

Mostly the song makes me think of Dan.  This is weird, because he would have hated the song if he were still alive.   Maybe it is the line, “Hello, from the other side” that makes me think of the afterlife.  It makes me think of the events of his life, and how frustrated I was planning his funeral.   

Hello, can you hear me?
I'm in California dreaming about who we used to be
When we were younger and free
I've forgotten how it felt before the world fell at our feet

It makes me think about us being dumb kids in California, and the stupid fights we would have over nonsensical stuff. The times that were spent camping and fishing and trapped at his little league games and melting crayons on the roof.

There's such a difference between us
And a million miles

As siblings, we were polar opposites.  If I said left, he would go right. Most people wouldn’t even realize we were siblings even if we were standing next to each other.  There were moments that we were good with each other, but they were often just drops in a bucket of tears. 

Hello from the other side
I must have called a thousand times
To tell you I'm sorry for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home
Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried
To tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heart
But it don't matter. It clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore

It wasn’t a surprise to most that we had falling out. I think that most people thought that it would pass. Even now I don’t like talking about the falling out, mostly because it doesn’t change a thing.

Hello, how are you?
It's so typical of me to talk about myself. I'm sorry
I hope that you're well
Did you ever make it out of that town where nothing ever happened?

You can’t really change the past.  Honestly, we had a lot more growing up to do.

And it's no secret that the both of us
Are running out of time

It is easy to pepper the future with the what-ifs of the past.  What if he didn’t make that choice, and what if I wasn’t so stubborn?  Time ran out and individual choices caught up with us, and now I am stuck with this song in my head imagining that how frustrating it would be for Dan to talk to me from the other side and watching everyday life going on without him.

So hello from the other side (other side)
I must have called a thousand times (thousand times)
To tell you I'm sorry for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home
Hello from the outside (outside)
At least I can say that I've tried (I've tried)
To tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heart
But it don't matter. It clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore

No Such Thing as a Bad Card

There is something wonderful about receiving a birthday card in the mail.  It shows that the person was thinking of you and that they took the time to show you in a tangible way.  It shows that you are valued and can turn a bad day into something better. 

There is no such thing as a bad card.  One of my best friends decided to test that theory and send me the exact number of cards to the number of birthday years I was celebrating  over the period of my birthday month. I had no idea what I was in for.

There are a whole lot more cheesy birthday cards than I had ever expected.  I received cards with cats on them, cards with words of flattery and plenty of cake and good wishes.  There was glitter and humor and then really puny stuff.  I am pretty sure the cards all ranged from the good, the bad and the ugly cliche. There came a point that my husband asked if birthday cards were my thing because he was getting tired of finding them tucked in odd areas of the house. 

The best thing about the cards is not in the volume that I received or in the quality of their cheese, but in the fact that my friend took the time to write a personal message in each and every one of the cards that she sent.  Some of the cards had random thoughts that were in her head and other talked about past adventure, but all of the cards received that personal touch. It is that personal touch that made it awesome. It didn't matter if she sent one card or thirty four it was the gift of prose that made me smile from my head to my toes.