Daily Prompt: If You Leave

Life is a series of beginnings and endings. We leave one job to start another; we quit cities, countries, or continents for a fresh start; we leave lovers and begin new relationships. What was the last thing you contemplated leaving? What were the pros and cons? Have you made up your mind? What will you choose?

Sometimes I wish I could just quit life, have an endless supply of money, and run away to some kind of deserted island, with a wifi signal so I can just sleep, swim, sunbake and write… even just for a couple of months or so.

…however, that’s merely a pipe dream (unless somebody wants to give me half a million dollars to make it a reality… meh, no harm in asking!).

The last thing that I contemplated leaving was my job. I’ve been there for a while now, and I’m stuck in a role that really doesn’t have room to grow. I do happen to enjoy what I do, but I’m sometimes unsure if it’s because I actually do a good job, or if it’s merely because most of the people around me are so completely hopeless, they just make me look so good by comparison.

The only problem though, is that if I left my current job, I have absolutely no idea what I would want to pursue next. I have no qualifications or formal study to fall back on – I didn’t go to uni, I didn’t even finish my TAFE courses because I let it all fall by the wayside to pursue a career in dancing… which, in turn, fell on it’s arse and left me with a spinal injury.

I’ve actually take a few steps to investigate studying towards the end of this year, and my understanding is that my employers have given it a green light, as they would be paying for the course. I just don’t actually know how I’d manage to balance intense study, plus working full time, plus my my second job, plus maintain a relationship, AND find time to write my blog posts… hehehe, because let’s face it, that’s what’s really important!!

At least by studying, it’ll allow me to gain the first step towards gaining some kind of certification, which could then lead to a diploma, and in turn, would allow my career opportunities to broaden, and I would then be able to take on a similar role within other organisations… however, that would all hinge on whether I actually manage to pass the course. I don’t exactly have the best ability to focus and concentrate, and I’m quite easily distracted.

Then, there’s always the question of whether the course would be so intense I’d need to take regular time off work – that would require reducing my hours, perhaps even by a day or two, which would considerably reduce my salary… and then that raises the question of whether I’m prepared to make that sacrifice, and whether Hulk is prepared to support that decision.

All of that is something that I would have to consider if and when the time comes to make those kind of decisions.

In an ideal world, I’d love to quit my current job and go work for another company, except Hulk and I would pretty much sack most of the employees there, and hire competent, and logical people to run the place with us, and hopefully, completely transform it. Oh, and relocate its office to Melbourne.

Again, it’s only a pipe dream, but there’s nothing wrong with dreaming, right?

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/daily-prompt-if-you-leave/

Daily Prompt: Never Gonna Give You Up

You. We know *you* are vice-free, dear Daily Post reader. But, or perhaps we should say, “butt,” others around you and in your life are riddled with vices: they smoke; they eat too much celery; they hog the covers; they can’t keep their hands out of the office candy bowl. Which vice or bad habit can you simply not abide in others?

I think the absolute number one vice would be smoking. I cannot stand the stench of cigarette smoke – it’s just foul.

It’s bad enough being stuck near a smoker because there’s nothing as asthmatic (like myself) loves more than second-hand smoke, but it’s even worse when you’re stuck on transport next to a smoker. They have that horrendous stench to them. It’s in their hair, it’s in their skin, in their clothes, and it’s just disgusting. It’s one thing that’s an absolute deal-breaker for me. Especially being somebody who works in the fitness industry, I cannot condone cigarette smoking, primarily based on the consequences it has on a person’s health. I would much prefer people weren’t dying from lung cancer, or blood clots, or brain damage etc, but unfortunately the people who are doing all the smoking don’t seem to share the same concerns.

I understand that it’s a drug. I understand that people have an addiction. But I also understand that there are numerous products that people have access to, in order to get their addictions under control; get their cravings under control, and eventually quit. Yet, what I don’t understand is that so many smokers just don’t want to.

!?!?!?

Seriously… what the fuck? Why wouldn’t you want to actually do something to stop smoking?? I’ve never been able to understand that. You have an addiction. It’s an addiction that is slowly killing you form the inside out. You know that this is happening, and you know that you ‘probably should’ quit, BUT YOU DON’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!

Or, there’s the people who do make an attempt to quit, and if it doesn’t work for them the first time, they give up all hope, and just go back to smoking. **NEWSFLASH**: TRY AGAIN!! It might not work for you the first time, or the fifth time, or even the seventeenth time, but at least every time you try, you get a little bit better at it.

I remember when I was in my early twenties, I was out with some friends, and ended up going home with this really hot guy. We spoke for ages, and then one thing led to another, and all of a sudden we’re making out… then we both pulled back to catch a breath, and he excused himself to get up and go out to his balcony to have a cigarette. Like, he just got up off the couch, and said he was going for a smoke, and totally just left me there.

First of all, at no point was I aware that he was a smoker. I never saw a packet of smokes, or a lighter, and I guess the sweaty stinky clothes from being in a nightclub were masking the smell of cigarette smoke on his clothes. I didn’t even care how hot he was, I was just floored that anybody would be that rude and arrogant. So, I just left. I didn’t even say goodbye, I just grabbed my top and left. Just as I got downstairs, he called me wanting to know where I was, and I’m like ‘Sorry, I’m not going to waste my time with somebody who’s that rude to just leave me so he could have a smoke. Clearly, that was your priority. Not me. I’m not having that.’

Then he had the nerve to get pissed off at me for leaving. Fuuuuuuck that. At first he was really apologetic about it, but when he finally realised that I wasn’t coming back, he had the nerve to have a go at me for ‘wasting his time’.

Had I known he was a smoker beforehand I wouldn’t have even left the club with him. Just meeting somebody who’s a smoker, and I’m already that quick to jump the gun on how I feel about them. Apologies to those of you who are smokers, I don’t think we can be friends. If you’re not prepared to at least entertain the thought of trying to quit, and actually be proactive enough to do something about it… I can’t be your friend and sit idly by whilst you do that to your body.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/daily-prompt-rick-roll/