of making a move on

"Life is too short to be unhappy."

(sorry, no accompanying picture of a famous person)

It was early 2008 and I was working my first job after graduating from junior college. After a long fruitless job search my mum introduced me to her friend's husband, who ran a small company which provided listing services for companies, kind of like a Yellow Pages. The office had probably 10 employees or less, all of whom were older and spoke predominantly Chinese instead of English, and I was a shy and awkward kid. Basically, I had a miserable time. But even objectively, it was a terrible job - I seldom had anything to do, and when I did, I was forced to create designs that met my boss' taste, or lack of it. Worse, I didn't understand why he was even creating the product that he was creating because it seemed completely useless and undesirable to me.

The building that I worked at had a friendly security guard, and I would often visit him at lunch times because I was so bored and lonely. Although I never talked about my job, one day he simply pointed out how sad I looked all the time (I tried to deny it) and he suggested that I quit my job. I was hesitant. Then when he said the words that I quoted above, I felt so liberated and I decided then and there to quit. I can't quite explain it, because they are simple words that I'm sure everyone has heard before, but it was a magic moment for me.

Sometimes you just need someone (anyone) to remind you of the things you already know. I will never forget that security guard and the much-needed push he gave me that day.