I think I need help. I'm addicted to grocery shopping.
So I just realized this evening (while debating canned soups at Safeway, a local grocery store) that I am totally addicted to grocery shopping. Face it, I've only been down here in DC for 8 days now and I have a good dozen receipts piled up on my desk. Oh and did I mention this Safeway store is inside the Watergate Complex? Yes, THE Watergate Complex with the infamous Nixon admin association. I didn't know much about the scandal so my roommate and I watched the movie "All the President's Men" last week to find out more (after consulting wikipedia of course). I thought the movie was really good. It's from the 70's and revolves around the two Washington Post journalists that helped uncover the scheme in 73. The story, as you can guess, made their careers...in the coming years they wrote books recounting their experience, did interviews and the whole schmear. Isn't it amazing when you just hit gold out of nowhere? Not to trivialize their hardwork and crazy hours they put into investigating the story, but how many hardworking and intelligent people out there really ever hit the jackpot? I pair up intelligence and hardwork because you can't get away without putting in the hours no matter how 'intelligent' you really are, a belief reinforced in me by Gladwell in his new book "Outliers" (which btw I think is this year's must read - I've been shamelessly publicizing the book to no end). Wow, I've rambled on quite a bit there.
So going back to smart, hardworking people and why they deserve success (and more often than not achieve success) over smart and lazy people. Gladwell presents some very strong examples from our world - from Bill Gates to famous writers and Nobel Laureates - almost every subject in his sample has put in roughly 10,000 hours (which he calls the ten thousand hour rule) into their work. These aren't just smart people, they are smart, dedicated, passionate people. I think it takes tremendous discipline to beat on tirelessly for days and weeks, especially if you're not seeing any positive signs of whether you're even going in the right direction! I know from personal experience how easy it is to lose heart in a situation like that...
Anyhoo. Moving on to a slightly less serious topic. I can't believe I'm in DC for the entire summer. And not just that, I'm actually living at a stone's throw from the White House and the National Mall. It's almost like I'm on vacation everyday! I'll explain further why. I'm not working 8-5 hours, I don't have a routine, I'm reading books I've had on my "must-read" list for years, and I have the world's greatest roomie (Hey Khalea! I know you're reading this because I tagged you lol). The most "stressful" part (and the "work" part) of my day involves reading academic papers in economic policy, taking elaborate notes, and then working on my own paper. That's what I'm down here for.. I'm writing a paper on SSDI (Soc. Security Disability Income) on a specific topic TBD within the next few days. Now granted, I could have stayed in Boston and written this paper but c'mmmoooon it's DC! How could I turn down the possibility of catching a glimpse of Obama walking the first dog in his yard? LOL (I'll bet he has people to do that). Oh and if anyone's keeping track, I've added US economic policy to my list of interests (refer to the historic election of 2008, please).
Ah. This is actually a liberating feeling. I haven't written a post in so long because during the semester I'd always have something gnawing at the back of my mind - some pset/email/midterm/reading/friend in distress/hunger pang/you get my point. And for some reason, that's not happening this summer. This summer looks so different from my previous experience..Last year around this time I was chilling at Merrill meeting some of the brightest people I know (read Deepti, Mia) and living it up in New York City. It's still my favorite city in the world. Some wise men argued London would provide competition, but it didn't quite happen - my spring break trip to London this year just proved how much I loved NYC! =)
Okay I think I'm running out of things to write now. Well, not really, but I'd hate to do an overkill. Will save some for next week!
Hope everyone's having a great summer!!! =)