What I Know For Sure: Success

When I was 16, I had this idea in my head that at the age of 27, I could call myself a success if I:

a) am employed with a job I love {HA! How enterprising.}
b) am living on my own {I obviously had issues with rules}
c) am living without household help whatsoever
d) can do whatever at 10 PM and with no curfews {issues!}
e) can party/go clubbing/go out of town any time my heart pleases {oh my clueless 16 year old self!}
f) have enough money in the bank to live comfortably and without debt {You realize when you're older that money doesn't exactly equal happiness}

Funny how time changes things so much.Yes, at 27, I can say everything above is true for me. But I can't say that those are all that makes me happy.

Over the weekend, I've been reading a book I put off for a year. Recommended by older male peers, Timothy Ferriss' The Four Hour Workweek is something, at first glance, a book I might never choose to read. As the people who recommended it are non-Filipino friends who've spent a quarter of their lives globe-trotting, I couldn't see myself doing the same thing, especially now that I've sort of transformed into a junior Martha Stewart wannabe, always daydreaming of patterned rugs, china, tea parties and hosting mimosa brunches.

Success is defined by the number of uncomfortable conversations that you can have.

... says Tim Ferriss. By now, you can tell that what used to sit in my maybe-I'll-read-you-someday pile ended up finally being read. Congratulations 16 year old Tara for achieving the items above. But maybe it's truly time to step out of that comfort zone you've been hiding in for so long now. Maybe the time has come to build new measures of success. Maybe I will want new, exciting, uncomfortable conversations. We will know.

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That and the lost art of etiquette is something I hope would make a comeback.
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xx