1. I grew up in family of tight-wads.
I had quite a comfortable upbringing. I am demonstrably middle-class. However in one respect I find myself a little unusual. My family is debt-phobic. My parents grew up with rationing in post-WWII Britain. They nursed a young family through the high-interest rate 1970s. For them, debt was not a handy way of accessing funds but something not that far from alcoholism or drug addiction. This meant that we spent our holidays visiting glamorous Birmingham (where my grandparents lived). However inheritance of their loathing of debt has made my life considerably easier in recent years.
2. I joined a marginal profession just as it faced annihilation.
I trained as a librarian back in the mid-1990s. I don't really remember why. This meant that (quite by accident) I found myself smack in front of the information Tsunami that was the internet. And that was a good thing. It sent me down a pathway that involved technology, human behaviour, all kinds of cool things. Above all, I learned that professionally you either adapt or leave. Simple really.
3. I am mentally ill.
I suspect that I suffer from cyclothymia - a mild form of bipolar disorder (manic depression). The "down" part of the cycle is pretty horrible (struggling to get out of bed, wanting to die), the "up" part is exhilarating & a little scary (boundless energy & confidence, insomnia, poor impulse control) but there are plenty of bits in the middle. There is a genetic link between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and a close family member was diagnosed with the latter condition. The depression drives me to read compulsively as a form of medication. The hypomania drives me to get things done (often based on what I have read). My condition (and there is no reliable test for it, just conformance to symptoms) has probably aided my professional life - just as my relative's condition has probably condemned them to a life of marginalisation.
There are many other ways in which I have been lucky but these are 3 that have been pinging round my mind recently.
How have you been lucky?
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7 comments:
Wow, a fascinating post Matt, thank you so much for sharing! The 7 things meme that did the rounds at Xmas aside, you rarely find out too much about the person behind the words on these sites.
And thank you for stopping by, Dirk. You're always welcome round these parts...
Thanks for your honesty Matt. And of course your perspective, which is always enlightening.
My parents are also tightwads! We should start a support group called 'Fiscalphobics Unite'.
We can work through our fear of credit cards, our inability to say the word "debt" publicly and the anxiety associated with tipping, shouting and donating.
Serena - Do you blog? If not, why not gosh darn! I'm sure you have some interesting things to say...
Oscar - Fiscalphobics? Love it! Shouting & donating is OK. I get a bit funny about tipping. I do it but I kinda feel "why is this business outsourcing its payroll function to me?"
N.B. To all service people reading this: Friendly, helpful people get better tips than moody, useless ones. Why oh why is that so hard to grasp?
Nice post mate.
1. I grew up in a non-conventional family in a very conventional time and place.
My grandparents were culturally aware working/middle class; my parents were hippies; they sold screen printed t-shirts at the local market; my father (who still is a hippy, really) is an artist; my mother and her parents were solidly left-wing. None of these things were, of themselves, radical, but as I grew up I realised that I was exposed to perspectives that most of my peers weren't. Plus I have a burning distrust of the status quo, despite being utterly immersed in it...
2. I have worked with a few very intelligent, questioning, searching people.
And you're one of them chief.
3. I have an occasionally dark sense of humour.
Self-explanatory, and sanity-preserving.
Toby
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