two years from now...

Today marks the two year countdown to London.

London? Yes. The 2012 Olympic Games will be held in London, and words cannot express how thrilled I am that it's only 730 days away.

Here's what the venues look like today:

(photo courtesy of London 2012 and Getty Images)

You can see that there is still progress to be made before the athletes start pouring into the Olympic Village, each representing their home country with clothing donning their country's official colors. Which, in case you didn't know isn't always the same color on their flag (my favorite example: Australia!).

Sponsors and partners will have their logos splashed everywhere. The Village is notorious for having McDonald's, who has been a long-time sponsor of the Games. In- and out-of-competition apparel comes from the likes of Nike (who is not technically a sponsor) and Ralph Lauren (at least if you're an athlete from the U.S.). Chances are, you've seen a VISA commercial or two if you tune into Olympic coverage for more than a minute.

But there's more to the Olympic Games than branding. It's about heart. It's about creating an experience for the best athletes in the world (aside from Ironman competitors or the U.S. Softball team, neither of which will be competing in London). The International Olympic Committee wants to "build a better world by promoting the Olympic Truce and using sport to forge friendship among the athletes, young people and communities," essentially creating peace worldwide.

Even though I still have VHS tapes from the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, I clearly remember the "Olympic Moment" from one random day in the first week of compeition. I wish I had a video to show you of the NBC piece, but it's nowhere to be found on the internet. I'll track it down in my box of tapes if you want to see it. Anyway. This swimmer, Eric Moussambani, came to Sydney from Equatorial Guinea, a country that had just established their first aquatic federation. Moussambani was going to swim in the same pool as Ian Thorpe and broken world records.

“I didn’t know if I could make it,” Moussambani would tell us reporters, and he meant those words literally … he honestly did not know if he could swim 100 meters. He had never done it before. Not straight. Not in a row. Heck, 100 meters would have meant swimming the length of the hotel pool five times, dodging any number of splashing kids.

But these were the Olympics. He would certainly try. He stood on the blocks at the beginning of the race and, as fate would have it, he stood alone. Both of his competitors in the heat false started their way out of the race. The stage was his.

(Read the entire story from Joe Posnanski - I promise it's worth it)

So he swam both lengths of that 50m pool. And he finished in 1:52:72. Alone. People laughed. People thought "I'm faster than that." But he had only been swimming since January, and these Games were in September. And he finished after never having completed that distance before.

That story encompasses what the Olympic Movement is about. Chances. Struggle. Succeeding. Because success doesn't necessarily mean winning, at least not for everyone.

When we think about what we'll be doing in two years, usually it seems far away. We aren't thinking of that time or place yet. We don't know where we'll be. But today we can say, two years from now I will be watching the Opening Ceremonies for the 2012 Olympic Games.

And I don't know about you, but I hope I'm there to see it in person.

i'll tell you a story.

I like to think that I keep a blog so that people will read it, and so I can practice my writing. I really think it's even more of the latter than the former, because I'll tell you what, I'm not going to cater blog posts in the hopes that someone reads them. It's almost like a conversation with myself, and I'm letting you in on it. Sure, sometimes I offer advice, but it's usually unsolicited and since I don't know if anyone reads it, it's probably not that helpful either.

So I say, if I want to write a blog post, I will. It doesn't have to be just about a job or something professional or even just something serious in life. I like those posts too, but sometimes it's nice to be thoughtful without being a stick in the mud. There are all sorts of sites and people offering advice on how to write great blog content. Penelope Trunk has 101 posts and counting on how to blog. Which is great. But I'm not looking to make money.

I just want to write. I'm at work in a cubical alone 40 hours a week, and then I go to the gym or go home to an empty apartment...and blogging is me reaching out to the world. It's that conversation thing again, you see. I want to write, and I want to have a conversation with you.

When I was at my parent's house (which I still consider to be home, as opposed to my apartment, which is "home") just recently, I found a worksheet I had done in second grade. It asked a simple question that we were all asked a lot as second graders - What do you want to do when you grow up? So naturally, I wrote "I want to write." Then I crossed out write, and wrote "sing" instead. Writing is a more realistic goal. Something I'm good at, and not just because I'm at a karaoke bar and they have "Suds in the Bucket."

You can learn about a person through their writing, if what they are writing is true. Writing comes from the heart. We can express ourselves in so many ways, and words can go so far. Even those that are not fortunate enough to hear can still speak. Words are in music, words are in everything we say, and everything we read. Words are everywhere. They are an extension of who we really are on the inside, because our hearts and our brains can't cry out in joy or sadness or anger on their own. Yes, body language can express our emotions, and so can our facial expressions, but when we're miles away, our words really tell the story of how our day went and how we feel.

All this talk about words makes me think of the conversation I had with my mom tonight on the phone. We talked (or maybe I talked, and she just listened), and I said toward the end of the conversation, "Can't you tell I had a good day today? I don't want to get off the phone." She's noticed this before, and it's worth mentioning. Here's why, and maybe you're like this too - if I have a bad day, you can tell. I don't want to talk to anyone. Phone conversations are short and usually don't include much detail. Yes. No. One word answers.

But if I'm in a good mood, I want to share. This was my day, this is what happened, this is what I'm doing this weekend. I want to tell you all about it, and it's hard to express that "feel-good" vibe over the phone or internet without words but it's worth sharing. If we're talkative, we form better relationships and people feel more connected to us, which is why it's important to be in a good mood at work. When we feel good, we share, even when there's no one on our couch in our living room to share with.

Don't trap yourself. Write something. Maybe it'll be just for you, on a post-it or in a notebook you keep on your kitchen table. Painting, screaming, or rolling around on the floor are also interesting options for expressing yourself, but using your words is so simple and you can do it anywhere, anytime. Write on.

read a book. go to a movie.

Lately I've been reading a lot. I always have enjoyed reading, but there's something about diving into another world that just feels so good. I'm trying to grow my reading list, so please, comment with any good books you've read lately! I need new worlds - ones I haven't discovered yet.

Have you ever noticed that reading a magazine or a newspaper doesn't give you the same buzz, the same high as reading a book? Books are magical. They're mostly not fact. Full of feeling. You can get inside someone's head. forget about the real world for a while. You don't have to think too much about natural disasters, money, love lost and found again...at least not in your life. If you're thinking about it, it's in the book. It's a story. It doesn't have any bearing on your life, and it won't change your day, unless it touches your heart and your mind in some profound way.

So maybe in addition to suggesting good books, we should pay homage to the books that have changed our lives.

This is really a perfect segway into what is really on my mind.

Inception.

photo credit: Melissa Moseley/Warner Bros. Pictures (via E!online)

Have you seen it? It just came out Friday, and because of my loads of moviegoing-friends, I felt the pressure to see it as soon as I could. I'm so glad I did.

If you ever wanted to escape to another world, Inception may just be the perfect way to do so. Without giving anything away, the tagline for the film's website says that it's a film "set within the architecture of the mind." Let that sink in. What does that even mean? What could it possibly be suggesting?

Architecture of the mind. It sounds so beautiful. What all is in there? Brains? Thoughts? Feelings? So how could a story be set in such a place? I am so filled with questions, it's hard to even explain. You have to determine what is real and what is not. The problem is that reality is not so simple a place, especially if it is not where we want to be. It may be easier to be somewhere else. Anywhere else.

I really don't want to give too much away, because I hope you'll go see this yourself, but what a release. Christopher Nolan is a genius, truly, and if you've ever seen one of his films (The Dark Knight or Momento, for example), you already knew this. Leonardo DiCaprio is a long way from Jack Dawson and Titanic (thank God), and when you throw Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt into the mix, you have a perfect ensemble of a cast. Don't even get me started on the effects. All I'll say is spinning hallway. Fight scene. In any case, my lame attempt at a mini-film review is getting in the way of the real point of this whole post.

This is why we rely so much on entertainment. Books, movies. Television shows. It's an escape - we can leave behind reality, for something different, maybe even something better. Eventually we have to return to reality, but we can see entirely different worlds without leaving a chair and it may just give us an opportunity to learn something new about ourselves and who we want to be, what we want our lives to really be like.

"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible." -- T.E. Lawrence


What's reality, anyway?

mid-year whoohoos.

It's July. Which means the year is half over. Which means that most people are having some sort of mid-year review as part of their career.

Did you ever think about a mid-year review before you had a real, adult job? I know I didn't. Sure, most of my employment history has been for student positions, or something part-time for the summer. You don't need a mid-year review when you only work somewhere from May til August. That would be silly.

Mid-year reviews are a more formal way to get feedback on your job performance over the past six months. Reviews are actually an important tool for employers, since they can let you know what you're doing well and what you need to improve upon, and if there are employees who are not performing up to par...well, you know. Some argue that in today's economy, the mid-year review takes on more weight than it used to.

These kinds of reviews can also give employees the opportunity to make suggestions to their employer about ways to improve the organization, which is why it's smart not to skip these mid-year reviews - it is a learning tool for everyone.

But at the same time, I started thinking. I never thought about performance reviews before, at least not in a formal sense. Why? Because no one ever talks about them. It's not something you learn in college (at least, I'd have to assume in most cases you don't). It got me thinking about the other parts of "adult" life, and how there are some life lessons you just never find out about until you're out there, living it.

Here's a list:

• Performance reviews: No one tells you to expect this, but even more importantly, no one tells you the best way to respond! If you like most parts of your job, what should you say you dislike? How honest should you really be? If someone is asking you what changes you propose for your position/department/organization/corporation, is it unacceptable to suggest flexible hours, floating holidays or nap time (similar to the Spanish siesta), if you feel that would improve your job satisfaction? Probably, but who's to say? 

• How to make friends outside your place of work after college: When you're in college, it's easy to make friends. You probably meet 20 different people with each class you attend, if you're at a larger university, and through projects and social and professional groups, it's not hard to find those that have the same common interests as you. When you leave school and you're in a job with the same 40 people 40 hours per week, where should you fit "making new friends" into your schedule? Some people say the gym, but I don't really like to strike up conversation with a stranger when I'm sweating like I'm in the Sahara. The bars aren't ideal. What gives? Maybe you don't even have this problem, if you're still in your home state with fellow college alumni, but maybe you've taken a risk by...

• Moving out of state: Way out of state, for that matter. If your friends and family aren't within a day's driving distance (I'm talking a safe day, say, 12-14 hours of driving), you probably know what I'm talking about a little bit. No one really advises on how to pack up and move away to a different place for a new opportunity. You're on your own, you wanted this, you figure it out.

Other things I think would be great college courses:

• How to write an appropriate "thank you" note for a gift or a job interview
• How to plant something and keep it alive
• Those dishes won't wash themselves and neither will your clothes
• There will always be unexpected expenses when you can't afford it
• How not to get jipped by a repairman
• You'll never need that many groceries for just one person!

Maybe no one teaches this stuff because it's so subjective, or maybe these lessons are best learned if you have to figure it out yourself. Maybe we'll never really know.

What do you think? Are there lessons about being an adult that you wish you'd learned before? What would you suggest on a performance review if you were being totally honest?