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| The DC sky, working hard to make to moon look impressive. |
I’m fairly certain this is not news, but working on anything
is like pushing a dead car; once you get it going, it’s actually harder to stop
it abruptly than it is to keep it moving.
In the rare moments I actually find myself in this situation, I can’t
help but think, “This is what it must be like to have a type A personality.” To be successful in DC, a type A personality appears to be
an unsaid prerequisite. As literate binge
drinkers, DC seems to wear that designation like a badge of pride.
My law school career counselor once told me I have a
humility that, while charming, is a bit overdeveloped and could hurt me in
my career. To this, I had to resist the
urge to reply, “Well, maybe my humility is just right, and everyone else in
this city and profession is just a narcissist.”
But, even in my head, that sounded narcissistic, so I refrained. Though, I think the fact that I started a blog at all makes me narcissistic on some level.
Self-image aside, I really don’t know what it’s like to want or
need
to punish myself with work. Every time I
worked hard on something, I either did it after arguably unreasonable procrastination,
or I loved what I was doing. In the
latter case, concepts of time and effort disappeared altogether. Extrinsic motivation and competition for the
sake of it always seemed pointless. I’m
not intimating that that’s exactly a good thing. Sometimes extrinsic motivators like wealth,
prestige, or recognition of any kind is the only thing that gets us through
those rough days where we don’t get to do the things we love. You know how I get through them? Barely.
And with beer. Beer and video
games.
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| My average day. But less cute. |
Never in my life have I felt as lazy and irresponsible as I
have in this city. Maybe that’s why I
love it so much. If I am the dumbest of
those around me, I don’t have to deal with dumb people. I think the wounded ego is a fair trade-off
for this benefit, and one I've grown accustomed to.
Cheers, DC.
