ON THAT NOTE
The Power of Opportunity BY LALITA CHEMELLO
I am the worst at saying no, as I am sure many of you can relate. For some reason, I will likely volunteer to help even when I most likely shouldn’t, seizing every great opportunity, however more complicated it can and may make things, because who knows what may become of it? I sometimes blame the “grind” mentality of my Detroit roots, or the Midwest work ethic, where if you’re not working, you’re likely lazy (but not actually called lazy). That mentality that you work, and work, and work until you have what you want— until you’ve essentially, made it, makes us admirable workers, but also sometimes pretty useless human beings. Crazy enough, my therapist doesn’t encourage that “grind” mentality to work until you make it, citing things like burnout and anxiety, among a long list of other consequences. In reality though,
26
February 2022
my therapist is really spot on with that, because that list, that burnout, is exactly what happens. We live in this the land of opportunity where we idolize, near worship, the people who work hard, putting all of their time and effort into their dream. Some of us can do it with little-to-no consequences. And while I certainly encourage my friends, family, and even the kids I mentor at my alma mater to seize opportunities, there’s a way to do it in a more reasonable fashion that doesn’t hit the “Ctrl+Alt+Delete” sequence to most of your existence. It’s actually why this, as you may have read in our Bridal Guide, is my final issue with Moxie. You know, I started back in October of 2019 as a columnist for Heather. I had lost my full-time writing job in Detroit two years prior thanks to layoffs. My only bylines were on a blog I had personally
created about racing, called GpGrl.com, and I had my first byline the next month in an issue of Porsche Club of America’s Panorama magazine on the Formula E electric racing series. My writing at that time in my life was sparse and minimal. But I was in that hustling phase. I was going to write, even if I wasn’t getting paid (or paid often) for it! When I later lost my job during the pandemic, Heather offered me the Editor’s position here, and that has truly been a fruitful experience. We worked through a lot with everything coronavirus decided to throw our way, while still building and creating a totally new brand for our Kalamazoo-area magazine. Yet, we remained as positive as we could, and sometimes, like you read in my columns, things weren’t so keen. But here we are, still here and standing strong. I think it was the taking of a fairly rough job (for anyone in existence) for 2021, that really was perhaps the last straw of trying.
moxiemediagroup.com
