Monday Motivation: Decide How You Want Your Life to Be

Let me warn you, this Monday Motivation is going to be a borderline rant. Oh, who am I kidding? This is completely and 100 percent a rant, but I am using it as motivation.

So, here it goes.

Why is it that some people still continue to measure another person’s worth based on whether or not they have a boyfriend and not on their intellectual achievements. Let me add some context.

Take your time to decide.

This past weekend, I was at a family gathering and my aunt and uncle, not once but numerous times throughout the night, proceeded to ask me if my new car, which I had just bought a week earlier, helped me get a boyfriend. One, I don’t have a boyfriend. Two, my lack of a boyfriend isn’t a problem for me — I’m picky and I know it (Maybe LMFAO should turn that into a song). Finally, yes, aunt and uncle, my new car is going to bring all the boys to the yard. Seriously?!

Please, by all means, measure my worth based on my lack of boyfriend. Don’t congratulate me on graduating from college. Don’t congratulate me on having numerous internship and work experiences. Don’t congratulate me on the fact that I am currently exploring Master’s Degree programs. Don’t congratulate me on being a self-assured young woman.

I’m of the opinion that it’s better to know and love who you are before entering into a relationship, so you can find somebody that loves the you you love. Whereas, many people use relationships as a place to hide from who they really are. Not everyone, but some people do this. And, I’m not saying being in a relationship is a bad thing.

You get to decide  how you want to live your life. Please take my anger and turn it into a celebration of you — celebrate anything and everything you love about yourself.

After all, if you don’t love yourself, then why would anyone else love you?

Remember, you decide how you want your life to be. Don’t define it based on what you think other people want to see or believe you should be doing.

Run wild until you find someone to run with.

Heck, I graduated from college in December and have yet to find a full-time job. In the meantime, I am working two part-time jobs, have an internship and volunteer at a local media organization. This works for me right now, and I know that it will lead to bigger and better outcomes in the future. Other people, believe otherwise and have other opinions but it’s not their life.

Decide who you want to be and how you want to live and don’t hold anything back. No regrets. And, more importantly, don’t mask who you are for the sanctity of a relationship.

Friday Freak Out: It’s Funnier on TV

I’ve always wanted to have a Carrie Bradshaw moment. But I thought that moment would include my own Mr. Big, a fabulous outfit and a great night out.

Little did I know that my Carrie Bradshaw moment would happen as I stood in the Apple Store at the Mall of America. I didn’t imagine Mr. Big would be played by a Genius Bar worker and an all-day event that included me babysitting my data transfer.

Let me start from the beginning. Over the weekend, my iMac, the love of my life, restarted and, instead of opening to its main terminal, it flashed a file folder with a question mark. My immediate thought — This can’t be good.

“There was a mean little man that popped up and he had Xs where his eyes should be. And his tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth,” Carrie Bradshaw said. “That’s a sad Mac. You should’ve told me that before,” the data recovery man instructed. “Oh my god, why? Why? What does that mean?” Carrie exclaimed.

My brain continued to loop this Carrie Bradshaw moment throughout the weekend. I immediately contacted Apple support with no help. Eventually I was able to access my main terminal but couldn’t back up my data on an external hard drive I bought. At my Genius Bar appointment, I learned that my hard drive was failing and I’d be able to attempt to transfer my data but with no guarantee that all of it would be transfered.

Honestly, I had every intention of backing up my computer, especially with 10 giga bytes worth of documents including important portfolio pieces and all of my academic work. And let’s not forget my iTunes library. I love music and prided myself on having an enormous song selection. Now it could all be gone. You’re probably thinking, “But you can download your iTunes purchases again.” But what about the music I received from mix CDs? It’s gone.

So learn from my mistake. Please, back up your data. You can purchase external hard drives at a fairly decent price at your local Target. And after studying the prices of external hard drives at Apple, you will want to purchase it at Target. They are not marked up and are for both PCs and Macs.

Please, back up your data. I cannot stress it enough. This was my worst nightmare come true. It is yet to be seen how much data will be recovered from my hard drive.

And trust me, as someone who has lived through it, it’s much funnier on TV.