“What do you do?”

First, a post by Seth Godin: “What’s your job?”

Not your job title, but your job. What do you do when you’re doing your work? What’s difficult and important about what you do, what change do you make, what do you do that’s hard to live without and worth paying for?

“I change the people who stop at my desk, from visitors to guests.”

“I give my boss confidence.”

“I close sales.”

If your only job is “showing up,” time to raise the stakes.

 

I’m really having to think about this one lately, as I’m approaching a huge time of transition in my life — you know, graduating from college.

I told someone yesterday that my plan is to not have a plan, and to take it as it comes, and learn and grow from it. Be a free spirit, in a sense.

But I still want to define an end point that I can one day (whether it be in 5 years or 20 years) say “I _____________.” Not “I’m a marketer,” or “I’m an agent.” No, more like “I craft stories for businesses” or “I book tours,” or “I give people with disabilities hope.” Action words.

Oh, Common Life

Appropriate title for a post reviewing the new Fireworks album, as well as some thoughts on my life lately and how the album has made me think about it.

If you look at the growth that Fireworks has gone through from album to album, I think it’s fair to say they have reached their mature sound with this record. While still maintaining an unmistakable sound, “Oh, Common Life” is a blend of the surface heavy sounds and  fun-loving message that we find in “Gospel” mixed with the heavier and darker tones of “All I Have….” 

“Oh, Common Life” has continued the notion that I have of Fireworks’ ability to make me dance in my seat no matter my mood. It’s easy to listen to, but by no means shallow music. ‘Flies on Tape’ rings a message of growing up, and realizing how much people change in two years. The whole album reconciles the conflict Mackinder has clearly faced of reconciling friendships, as you watch friends become people they said they’d never be. He does so in a way that listeners can connect to — with a message of disconnecting. 

While I wouldn’t normally compare overall feel of a band to Paramore in a positive way, this record has the same catch that Hayley Williams offers, as Mackinder’s voice compliments the musical undertones in a perfect match. You want to listen both to the melody and the complex harmonies at the same time, and paying attention to just one aspect leaves you wanting to pair it with the other to make a complete sound. 

The one thing I would have liked to see in this album is maybe one or two more upbeat songs. I don’t mean happy – I just mean faster tempo. ‘Play God only Knows At My Funeral’ is the fastest tempo song, and it makes me want more. Even though it’s not a happy song lyrically, it brings an energy and sense of urgency that I feel could have fit better in other parts of the album as well.

Overall, this will be in my car stereo on repeat likely for the next few months. Sorry “greatest generation,” time to take a backseat!

4.5/5

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My not so common life: I suppose the best way to sum it up is that I am sitting in Las Vegas for a conference for work right now, and this trip has made me realize how blessed I am to be in the position I am in my company and that my whole life is so out of the ordinary for a 21 year old. Few people have the opportunities and experiences that I do at this age, and it has been a little bit surreal lately. I certainly work my (butt) off for it, but it kind of seems too good to be true.

While my research is not panning out how I’d like, and my graduation date has been pushed back a semester, the fact that I’m even getting to write an undergraduate thesis and conduct my own research, and take awesome digital marketing classes in that final semester make me smile at my situation. I feel immensely blessed.