Ramanujan Redux

For a few weeks I was struggling to figure what to say on here. Should I write about my travels? (I will, in due time) Should I keep on endlessly philosophizing? I think for now it’s best to work at my main goal in this site—re-educating and transforming who I am as an individual, in addition to realigning myself with understanding what I want and need out of life.

So we’re going to start with a little experience sharing. Feel free to chip in.

I’ve been reading the 4-Hour Work Week (not sure how my goals align with it, but it provides some interesting ideas), and I figure even if I’m not going to follow the lifestyle to the letter, some of the self-assessment questions do touch with me. So I’ll try and answer them one-by-one over a series of posts.

First question on the docket.

How has being “realistic” or “responsible” kept you from the life you want?

Ah, such dreadful words. Back when I was a kid I didn’t care about reality or responsibility. I did a chore here and there, but it was mostly just to get back to my math problems. I was the little bugger, solving away because it was so damned fun. I didn’t worry about college pathways and majors and extracurriculars and all that crap. I had one goal: Be as good of a problem solver as I can be, with as much practice and guidance I can receive.

Then I moved to California. No friends, no network, nothing. Start from scratch. Parents start bring up words like ‘research’ and ‘opportunities’. 9/11 happens a few days after I settle in. World’s no longer the same to me. Have to be practical. Have to be useful. Have to start thinking about getting into big schools with big degrees. Be practical and stop having fun. Enjoyment’s for kids, kiddo. No more practicing math when people need programmers in the real world.

Have to be responsible too. Learn to find jobs, make money. Parents won’t be around forever handing you five hundred dollar checks. Be useful, find jobs. Grade papers, tutor morons, the like. Do things you’re sort of interested in doing one day.

But you want it your way. Not their way.

It isn’t hard to make the leap from where I’ve come in college to where I am now. I truly believe that if I hadn’t let reality set in. Adjusting back to the frame of mind that gets me where I want to go will be difficult. I just know that I want something higher than the worn-out terms of reality and responsibility. Some people are meant to follow standards. I’m ready to start breaking them.

Your task, readers: Answer the above question in the comments. Let’s let the misery out.

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This entry was posted on Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 9:02 am and is filed under Q&A. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.