Tumbling on to Perpetual Beats
My very first Tumblr post back in 2010 was a stream of consciousness rant that would horrify my high school English teachers. It was inspired by my reading of Dag Hammarskjold's Markings, the former UN Secretary General's diary. Actually, he was truly a poet in a politician's suit (his diary is an endless stream of motivational haikus).
Over time, my disjointed thoughts evolved into something more concrete. I put more time and effort into each post, I wanted it to be meaningful rather than just mind-farting, I never posted anything that wasn't an original thought. I appreciated the feedback from friends and strangers alike who read my works, especially the advice columns that I wrote.
I rarely (if ever) put my personal life into this blog. Tumblr was just my space to express my identity, my ideas, my passions. As a typical twenty-something Millennial seeking his purpose, Tumblr was a valuable whiteboard to organize my thoughts.
Some of my most inspired pieces of writing come from that genuine wish to help mentor my younger friends, as we leave the bubble of university for the “real world”. I’ve developed a lot of strong thoughts about education, careers, and the future of this economy that I would love to share with a wider audience (especially those students with a passion in politics also pursuing a career in the NGO or policy arena). My specific education here at a professional graduate school has given me a lot of valuable insights that I wish I knew about, when I was a college student myself.
My epiphany is that my personal and professional lives are quite intertwined. I still aspire to be a career “point guard” of sorts, as I once wrote about how “I want to push friends and strangers alike into the right direction, I want to assist them in reaching their dreams and goals.” Even though I wrote that over a year ago, time has shown that my drive to help others is no mere hobby, but an actual life pursuit. I realize my desire to help my friends is strongly tied to my own professional goals, I want to be someone that helps you (or your NGO/business/government/institution/etc) get to your maximum potential.
(If all works out, I'll hopefully be working in my school's career center next semester. Maybe even our digital media lab, since I enjoy this Web 2.0 so dearly)
So I've started a new blog at Perpetual Beats. This will be a more focused attempt to interact with a more professional audience in my field, on a web platform that is more conducive to interaction. While this blog will be generally be focused on development/politics/data, I hope to soon include career topics like the values of networking, the importance of Web 2.0 and social media, how to “brand” yourself, and the relevance of your “useless” humanities/social science/liberal arts degree. All of these posts will be linked back to Tumblr for your convenience.
Please continue to give me feedback as much as possible, I’ve always treasured it.
I don't know what I'll do with Tumblr then. It's not like I post any personal stuff here anyways (that's in my private drafts!). Perhaps I'll find time to reflect on some of my traditional identity issues, but time will tell what my priorities will be.
I look back at my Tumblr archive now with a sense of pride, despite some of my more juvenile and poorly-written works. My archive is the closest thing I have to tracing the evolution of my ideas, and therefore my own development from a young college sophomore to the working professional I will soon be. I hope to look back at Perpetual Beats' archives with the same satisfaction one day as well.