I guess there are enough people on board now that I can post my "major life update" because I know you were all losing sleep, wondering what I'm doing now. This may end up being very long...
Well, as most of you know, I dropped out of Wheaton after my Sophomore year. If any of you are wondering why I did that, well, I am too. I have some theories, but I don't think I'll ever figure out what led me to leave. Alienation from my major was part of it. However, looking back I view it as a huge mistake, mainly because I missed out on a great opportunity to continue my friendships with all of you guys. Many of you were the best friends I ever had, and I don't think I'll ever find that kind of friendship again. It's my fault for squandering that. It was especially painful when I would come back to visit, and I got to see what I'd passed up...but you had all moved on and I hadn't. I Still haven't.
Since leaving Wheaton, I've maintained my long-standing job at Meijer, the Wal-Mart wannabe of Michigan. I'm working on completeing my ninth year as an employee there. I was considered for promotion this summer, but was ultimately passed over due to the rampant cronyism and politics that go on. I can't say that I enjoy my job at all. I've been trying to quit for the last three years with no success. It is a steady income, which has been nice, but the job is terrible and takes a lot out of me, so it's not really worth it.
Aside from my job, the only relatively consistent aspect of my life has been my pursuit of recording music. I continue to get more equipment, which ends up sitting unused because I'm not good enough to write music that I feel like recording. The Aeijtzsche & H magic is gone. Grady and I record occasionally as he mentioned, but our opportunity to do that can be rare and short-lived, so we have yet to do anything substantial. If anybody cares, I now have Three electric guitars, four electric basses, four acoustic guitars, a piano, an electric piano, a full drumset, a bag full of percussion instruments, six microphones, a flute, a trumpet, a violin, and I experimented with a tenor saxophone this summer. As I mentioned earlier, I have managed to record only about 5-7 original full songs in the last four years, I just don't have a muse.
When I'm not working or buying outrageously expensive musical equipment for which I have no use, I'm generally going through a series of obsessions.
When I first left college, I decided to join the local Rugby side. I was pumping a lot of iron and became quite the athletic person. I was enjoying playing rugby and was looking forward to moving up the ranks on the team. Then one day, I lost interest.
I moved on to my Australian football phase, then an Anime phase, then I sort of had a golf phase. Currently, I'm obsessed with Beach Boys trivia and history, and have become one of the leading Beach Boys experts in the world. If any of you haven't listened to the Beach Boys beyond their surfing and car songs, I encourage you to do so, starting with their 1965 work "Today!" and going through their mid 70s LPs.
As for future plans, I really don't have any ambition, so I suspect I'll live out my days working at Meijer. It's a living. I've been trying to move to Chicago or possibly back to Los Angeles, but I don't have any sort of drive or resources so I've given up.
So there it is. The cookies have been spilled.
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8 comments:
Aeijtzsche, glad to see the big cookie spill. Thanks for sharing. I'm sorry to hear the undercurrent of frustration; I share a lot of the anxieties that dot your update like chocolate chips. I don't suppose that I'm really trying to comfort you here because I don't feel all that great myself about life now or in the future. I just wanted to say that I'm in it with you (whatever diabolic cookie jar it is we're stuck in). This is turning out way more serious than I thought it would, so I'm going to stop before it turns into a "very special episode" of Family Ties.
Coye, I'd very much like to shower with you again.
I don't think anyone can argue with your reasons for leaving Wheaton. After all, if your studies are not taking you in the direction you want to go, then $40,000 is a lot to pay for friendships, especially when you can have them for free. And now we are all out of Wheaton, dispersed, and communicating via blog. So now we are all in basically the same position, the only difference being you had two less years and $40,000 that you don't have to pay off. Yes, all of us had to say the penultimate goodbye at some point (first, I thought 'ultimate', then I realized that would be death).
The good thing is that it would be very easy and natural to continue things as they were at Wheaton if I were to find myself living close to any one of you somewhere down the road (as opposed to..say...Matt Druis, with whom I would not be able continue a friendship easily).
"As for future plans, I really don't have any ambition, so I suspect I'll live out my days working at Meijer." I'm toying with the idea that ambitions are over-emphasized in America, that since we were children, we've been inundated with the message that we have to reach for the stars, have dreams and make them come true, achieve, go to a foreign country like Japan (and then what?). Does anyone else see this as a potentially unhealthy message? Can't we just live a life, doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God?
Having said that, I empathize with you, having to deal with cronyism and other schenanegans (sp?) at Meijer. I surely didn't enjoy my OfficeMax years.
Thanks for the honesty. Do you have any ideas as to what you would rather do than work at Meijer?
Be a well regarded, international (minor) pop star.
Why does Brian Wilson get way more songs written about him than the rest of the beach boys? Also, are you taking suggestions for your next obsession? I don't have any ideas off of the top of my head, but I'm sure that some of the guys would glassly offer their two cents.
Andy
glassly?
that should be a word
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