PARK AVENUE BLISS

WELCOME TO THE GOOD LIFE

Could you feel the testosterone pumping through these blocks of midtown? I can. Money, money, money........Only a stones throw away from Grand Central Station and every time I venture to this area I could sense all the power and pressure of the investment banks and hedgefund firms each right next door to each other. Financial professionals such as traders and bankers & the like with Type A personalities buckling under the pressure to keep capitalism flowing and money in everyones pockets. They slave and work nearly 24 hours/7 days a week for these huge investment banks to prove themselves to the company. There they are slaving into the ungodly hours of the evening into the early morning sitting in their cubicle under the florescent lighting trying their hardest to climb up the financial ladder of success. They have their eyes glued to the computer screen while on the phone conducting conference calls. After working 15 hour shifts till around 3 a.m. they call an Uber to go home and get their measly several hours worth of sleep so they could repeat the same vicious cycle over again. These financial professionals make a lot of money but they definitely work very hard for it.  I can't help but wonder do these well to do, highly educated and successful business men donned in suits, ties and pocket scarves really love what they do and find that it is worth selling their soul to these huge corporations and taking calculated risks? Or do they just get caught up in the glitz and glamour that come with success? Rolex watches, mansions, Ferrari's, vacations around the world, fancy bars/lounges, creme de le creme business mixers and of course gorgeous women? Or is it both? Do they really love the world of finance and know that after they slave away at these banks they'll eventually pay their dues and climb the corporate ladder where they could finally get to the next level where people finally work under them? When they reach college as young adults where they first begin the trade, do they know with 100% certainty that at the end of the rainbow is the pot of gold?  Maybe they know there is a light at the end of the tunnel when they become bosses and supervisors and could finally take a deep breath and make their own hours. I don't mean this in a superficial and materialistic way. I'm saying maybe all of this is an added bonus. After all they worked very hard to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I am just wondering if they truly are doing this because they love it  or because they know that they will become wealthy and be able to enjoy the good life? Or both?     

And I end this note by saying, "MONEY CAN'T BUY YOU LOVE!!!!"

Sink Or Swim

I feel like life is one big ocean: As soon as you grow up and become an adult, life becomes more like learning how to sink or swim.  My metaphor isn't written all in black and white of course, there are some people that are forever pampered by their parents & that treat them like babies till the end of time and live in the same big, shiny bubble that the Fairy God Mother from the Wizard of Oz lived in that lifts off higher than the sky. I could only speak for myself and to others that could relate to what I am going through. This metaphor could be translated in the literal sense: When I was a child and was first learning how to swim my father took me to the pool and forced me to jump in the water. I was petrified of course, the water was around 6 ft. high and unlike most kids that are bold and very daring, I was the antithesis. I was scared of everything from rides at amusement parks and going on water slides and getting in trouble at school. Well, my father wasn't one to handle me with kid gloves (no pun intended.)  Every day during that summer at the pool, I would dread when my father was done playing paddle ball because he told me that he was going to make sure I learned how to swim. There I was standing by the pool with my father waiting for me to jump in 6 ft of water. I was scared s**tless as I stood there trembling as I saw before me my father in that large pool of water waiting for me to jump into his arms. Well, someway and somehow that unorthodox way of teaching your child how to swim worked. I was able to conquer my fear of the water and learned how to swim.
Now as a young working professional in the "real world" I mentally use this one particular childhood memory as an analogy. 
In the professional world of being an adult after college and getting a job to support yourself (paying your own bills such as rent, food etc,....) or how about just blatantly saying, SURVIVING IN THE REAL WORLD?!?!?! it's sink or swim baby, strangers that now become your boss, supervisor, co-workers/colleagues, landlord, anyone that is in charge of your way of making ends meet do not treat you like you did growing up, they don't care about the fate of your position at their company, your finances, being out on your a** without a job and no money coming in. Only the strong survive, you either learn how to swim in the ocean or you sink and drown: and guess what? NO ONE CARES IF YOU'RE DROWNING, no one will save you, only you could save yourself! I was so unhappy as a child growing up, I was very shy and afraid of everything although I was being taken care of (spoiled rotten) with psychological abuse attached to it I'd still rather be where I am now as a strong, independent woman rather than a little girl. Although my father did not do me any favors by spoiling me and not teaching me the value of a dollar, in the end he did me the favor of telling me like it is and treating me with harsh and cruel criticism among other things. That old childhood cliche "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me" is the biggest fallacy ever created, I felt like I was being verbally whipped. As a young girl battling common issues most female adolescents face such as body image, physyical apearance and fitting in with your peers you could only imagine how suffocated I felt. To this day, I could still hear his icy and cruel words in the back of my head.  I had to fall down a million times and cry my eyes out while battling plenty of personal hardship as a child to get used to this harsh treatment my father dispelled on me. But as I matured into early adulthood, I developed a voice and strong will that enabled me to become accustomed to his unorthodox (amoral?) way of raising me which as a result prepared me to be tough in this cruel world. In retrospect, he taught me more life lessons on how to be fully equipped to handle reality than I ever learned inside the classroom....and for that I will forever be grateful.