Sunday, August 30, 2009

How a Boy's Dreams Die, Or, The Meaning of Raleinquished

::crackling radio static::

ANNOUNCER MAN:
      When last we left Nathan Sloan, he had just finished his first year wandering through the abyss that is the modern post-collegiate life. A semi-soft landing in the fluffyness of internship may have dusted him of much of his whimsy, but he still had much practicality to gain and even less of an idea of where he was heading. Like a trained mountain cat, he stalked the days of his youth by reapplying to work at summer youth camp and as the curtain fell on one season in Raleigh, he gazed out across the urban tree-line and pondered an uncertain departure...

This is Real.

What does it mean to Raleinquish? Firstly, and most obviously, it can be taken to mean that I have returned like a prodigal son to our state's sparkling capital city. If you were to take it that way you'd be right because, well - I have.

Sort of.

Once again I am living with the parental unit and commuting 40+ minutes to work every day. I work for an esteemed state financial organization which happens to be non-profit and very similar to a bank. I won't reveal too much about it until I've been there longer and can say for sure that they like me well enough to keep me. So far I love the place, though the vast amount of information they've asked me to absorb over the past two weeks of training has more than once made me daydream of running through a mountain glen surrounded by woodland creatures. That, in case you were wondering, is my happy place. It is where I go when I feel like I am experiencing an information overload. Other than that, it seems pretty cool.

The second reason I have titled this blog Raleinquished is because in coming back to this city and taking a desk job which requires of me a suit and tie,* I am voluntarily ceasing to keep or claim the lofty dreams of exceptional living that I held as a youthful high school and college lad. It's a moment in most of our lives where we realize the gig as a rock star might need to be put on the back-burner while we pay our bills in some disgustingly normal way. I may have Raleinquished for now, but with a little luck and a lot of work, don't count me out completely.

To be continued...

*Where do we get the saying "suit and tie?" I can think of no occasion in which it would be appropriate to wear a suit without a tie. When you take the tie away and it ceases to be a suit - it becomes some 1980's throwback to Miami Vice but I hardly think that can be classified as a suit. In short: when you lose the tie you lose the suit - lets be less redundant and more efficient** in our communication and just refer to it as a "suit."

**Did anyone else pick up on the irony of this?

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