My Inspiration from "The Help"
by Yolanda M. Owens
I was reading Kathryn Stockett's 'the Help' this morning and was inspired by a particular line…"Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else." I read this and thought to myself, what's the use of having your own blog if you only write what matters to someone else? For those of you who know me, you know conformity is a word I can spell but has no meaning in my vocabulary or character. So I'm taking some motherly advice from 'the Help' and channeling my inner free-spirit for this blog article.
So what, may you ask, disturbs this author chick/recruiting sensei/educator when she's not doling out employer dating tips?
I'm disturbed by the fact that the youthful ambition that sparks creativity often matures into an entitled apathy that produces mediocre crap. I often say inexperience is the mother of all creation. Some of the best things in life were procreated from "duh" moments and the happenchance of not knowing what the hell you're doing. So why does age, experience, and society make this a flaw instead of celebrating its genius? Somewhere in history Never-Never Land was deemed an unrealistic place. But youth should never be the place where we leave our originality and determinations to die.
I'm disturbed that living out loud is a buzzword trend without a filter. Living out loud is an art that not everyone is meant to emulate. So before you toot your own horn, keep in mind that there are times in life when it's more effective to be seen and not heard. In other words, listen before you speak and leave a little mystery. Just because it's in real time doesn't mean the message is appropriately on time.
I'm disturbed that conferences that were established to create calls to action are now merely pacifiers of tradition. Conferences have lost their purpose. They're all rhetoric with no resources. Back in the day (I'm disturbed to be old enough to use that phrase) conferences were held to educate and equip people with resources to fill necessary gaps and make them viral. Now conferences are politically correct vent sessions assembled to pacify collective problems and stroke collective egos. However, the only solutions coming out of these conferences are the fact that a panel of 'experts' discussed it via moderator followed by a brief Q&A session. It's like attending a catered staff meeting where you leave thinking "there's 3 hours of my life and $1500 I'll never get back". People need to be empowered by more than eloquently crafted answers and hypothetical solutions. I'm tired of attending conferences feeling like I've had a caught-up-in-the-moment experience with a check left on the nightstand.
There you have it. A glimpse of my current thought bubbles. Will they produce any future life altering articles? Probably. Not. But exhaling my angst has been cathartic and utterly blogasmic. So be on the lookout for more rants in the future keeping in mind, it's not you (it's me) that's fueling them.
So what, may you ask, disturbs this author chick/recruiting sensei/educator when she's not doling out employer dating tips?
I'm disturbed by the fact that the youthful ambition that sparks creativity often matures into an entitled apathy that produces mediocre crap. I often say inexperience is the mother of all creation. Some of the best things in life were procreated from "duh" moments and the happenchance of not knowing what the hell you're doing. So why does age, experience, and society make this a flaw instead of celebrating its genius? Somewhere in history Never-Never Land was deemed an unrealistic place. But youth should never be the place where we leave our originality and determinations to die.
I'm disturbed that living out loud is a buzzword trend without a filter. Living out loud is an art that not everyone is meant to emulate. So before you toot your own horn, keep in mind that there are times in life when it's more effective to be seen and not heard. In other words, listen before you speak and leave a little mystery. Just because it's in real time doesn't mean the message is appropriately on time.
I'm disturbed that conferences that were established to create calls to action are now merely pacifiers of tradition. Conferences have lost their purpose. They're all rhetoric with no resources. Back in the day (I'm disturbed to be old enough to use that phrase) conferences were held to educate and equip people with resources to fill necessary gaps and make them viral. Now conferences are politically correct vent sessions assembled to pacify collective problems and stroke collective egos. However, the only solutions coming out of these conferences are the fact that a panel of 'experts' discussed it via moderator followed by a brief Q&A session. It's like attending a catered staff meeting where you leave thinking "there's 3 hours of my life and $1500 I'll never get back". People need to be empowered by more than eloquently crafted answers and hypothetical solutions. I'm tired of attending conferences feeling like I've had a caught-up-in-the-moment experience with a check left on the nightstand.
There you have it. A glimpse of my current thought bubbles. Will they produce any future life altering articles? Probably. Not. But exhaling my angst has been cathartic and utterly blogasmic. So be on the lookout for more rants in the future keeping in mind, it's not you (it's me) that's fueling them.
Yolanda M. Owens Yolanda M. Owens is a college recruiting specialist and award-winning author of How to Score a Date with Your Potential Employer, an employment guide for young professionals that parallels job searching with dating from the lens of a corporate recruiter.
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