How fitting is it that I can use the phrase "Ante UP"?
Tomorrow is my last day at UNLV and I've sat at the table and made my wager before I can see what cards I'm going to be dealt at my new institution. I surely hope I win big because I'm wagering a good bit - decrease in income and higher cost of living to name a couple. Sure, it sounds silly that I would leave a position where I make great money for a position where I'm not only going to make less but I will also be living in a more expensive area. Nevermind the fact that I'm going to have to make new friends, find new people to trust, figure out how to do this new job, find an apartment with a reasonable rent, etc.
I've also thought about how I chose to spend my hard earned dollars each month. I eat out for dinner a good bit. I will spend $20 on random stuff. I'll go to Target and buy a bunch of things I don't need. Capitalism can ruin us Americans! I have credit card debt that I can't even begin to tell you why the amount owed is so high. Just plain foolishness and nonsense!
So what's the payoff? Well, I've come to realize what's important to me. A little self-actualization if you will. The goal is to live a simpler life.
In the five years I've worked and lived in Las Vegas I've nurtured things I love - my art, being creative, imaginative, and being myself. While I need money to do many of these things, I don't necessary have to have a lot of things in my life to make me feel good.
Living a simpler life has never felt so good. This past weekend, in preparation of leaving for Washington, D.C. I sold what seemed to most, everything at my apartment sale. So much "stuff" that in fact, I made well over $400 on Saturday alone. What makes it so bad is that everything I sold, I never really looked at for a year or more, had it travel with me each time I moved, and sometimes even forgot I had it. That's a shame. NO ONE should ever have so much stuff that you can't even account for what you own. I was just acquiring things without thought to, "Is it necessary?" I am leaving Las Vegas with my essentials; clothes, music, movies, my art and a better sense of self.
With this new found understanding I am wagering that I made the right choice. That the cards on the table will show me some love and have a nice pay-off career-wise and socially. Wiser wagers and better bluffing.
Here's to simple living, taking risks, and makin' it work!
1 comment:
I've always wondered what it must be like for someone to live in Vegas. Still don't understand how a rap superstar can be murdered on the Vegas Strip, and the shooters get away. On the night of a Tyson fight, nevertheless.
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