The Rat Race (David)

It’s been aaaaaaages since my last post and the only excuse I can come up with is procrastination. Please forgive me?

Uni is coasting along just fine, nothing super exciting has happened thus worth mentioning so I won’t bore you. Instead, I will go straight into what has been on my mind lately.

To be honest, I don’t enjoy being in the commerce faculty very much. Not the staff or professors in particular, they are fantastic (any professors reading this, I expect H1 on my exams), more so the nature of commerce as a field.

High school never ends and that is certainly true for the commerce faculty. At the moment, I’m not sure if I am getting the ‘real’ university experience. Ever since my degree started, the whole journey feels like a rat race. CV building, networking, staying up to date with employers, recruitment functions, the list goes on – basically anything that gives you an edge over your fellow students. Yes, I half-expected it commerce to be like this but that doesn’t mean I like it. It’s just so competitive and I am just so sick of competition. High school was incredibly competitive and all through my life I have been in a competitive environment. I am gradually running out of steam, to the point where I don’t give a damn anymore. To be ‘successful’ in the commerce field, you have to be on top of your game. Do I wanna network with people I couldn’t care less about? Do I wanna worry and fret about landing a job with one of the biggies? Do I really wanna spend my Saturdays playing golf with the boss instead of staying at home and learning how to cook free range chicken and pork galantine with roast Jerusalem artichoke puree and caramelised eschallots? And do I wanna spend my golden years playing office politics so I can stay on top or get ahead, instead of cruising along the Great Ocean Road on a motorbike with my pooch (or wife if I am not too wrinkly then) in the sidecar? Do I wanna keep being competitive so that I become someone who I have always despised? I mean, staying competitive has serious repercussions. However, it can also be said that life is one whole competition.

And then again, commerce will open a door of opportunities like working overseas which has always been a goal of mine. I can choose to shave my edges and keep my core, but what if I shave off too much?

And so after rambling on and on, I am still confused but that’s ok cos that is part of the ‘maturing’ process…maybe? One thing that this year has confirmed is that as you get older, more questions are asked than answered. Last year, I asked myself what course I should do at uni. This year, I am asking myself whether I wanna be an accountant (God forbid), an economist, a financial analyst, an alcoholic or an expert on the female mind. Alright I am being an idiot, but what I meant was that as you see more the world, you wonder why things are the way they are and at the same time you question yourself and the way you are (by you I mean me).

I don’t understand why people are so proud of the company they are working for. Yes, it may be a ‘prestige’ firm in that it has a strong reputation globally but at the end of the day, you are a worker among thousands of others working together to form a money making machine. This is particularly evident amongst the ‘Big 4’ accounting firms. Seriously, can’t you see that the slick offices, expensive coffee machines, comprehensive gym, retreats, sporting comps against other firms are forms of propaganda to brainwash you into thinking the firm is a community that really cares about you? It’s about productivity dimwit. Yes it’s fine to enjoy your workplace and the people you work with but POLICE, don’t be so patriotic about it that you wear your EY shorts everywhere you go or tell everybody that the firm you work for has more top 10 companies as your clients than other rival firms. Don’t get me wrong, I am not protesting against working for big corps just those people who are too attached to them.

Now that I am in that raging mindset, I will continue to unleash my fury. Well, ok not fury but just my thoughts on politics since the election is looming. I don’t understand why people are so attached to a particular political party. I understand having a preference for one (I do too) but I don’t understand becoming an equivalent of a one eyed Collingwood supporter. Face it, no political party is perfect and at the end of the day its politics. The fact that it’s politics mean no matter how idealistic or eager a party is, it will be forced to play the dirty game. I favour a party but I don’t agree with all their policies and I certainly don’t think they will save the world. Everyone should be open-minded enough to scrutinise their preferred party. I am an optimist but when it comes to politics, I am not so much. (Rick, if you are reading this I hope I haven’t offended you and if I did, I didn’t mean to)

Well instead of hitting the books, I am gonna watch more Scrubs and relate my life to JD’s, and at the same time relearn some valuable life lessons (well they aren’t life lessons but simply every emotion you have felt in some point in your life put into words).