Best Present: Be Present
Pensive Pragmatism
This week marks the fourth issue of my weekly blog, Pensive Pragmatism. I would like to say thank you to everyone that takes the time to read this. After all, who am I and what have I done for you to even bother listening to me?
As I previously said, I intend to use this blog for multiple purposes. The “research” tab that’s coming soon is for me to showcase my professional work and act as a portfolio website. The “musing” that you’re currently reading is a combination of my thoughts and opinions that I’ve accumulated over the past week.
Some people might have thought that I have too much free time on my end to be writing a weekly blog.
Trust me, that’s not the case.
Other than for the reasons stated above, what inspires me to really do this blog, is a book by Austin Kleon called “Show Your Work” and Gary Vaynerchuck’s mantra: “Document, don’t create”.
The gist is to embrace your learning journey in this digital era. You don’t need to be 50 years old before you start writing and sharing your thoughts with the outside world. The process of documenting/showing your work online, in a transparent manner that shows your struggles, learning, and overall journey; can be beneficial for you and other people that read it.
Moving forward, I plan to increase the quality of my weekly post, combining my “musing” with current issues that I enjoy to follow and try provide insights on top of my rambling. By stating this online, I hope to hold my self more accountable :)
The best present is to be present
I was about to walk out of my apartment building on Sunday, January 26th 2020 when my lease manager stopped me and asked whether I’ve heard the news.
“Kobe Bryant just died, his helicopter crashed”, she said.
To be completely honest, I don’t have any special admiration for Kobe, meaning that I’ve never really become his “fan” or followed his career religiously. But for some weird reason, it still felt “off” when I heard the news. It was this unexplainable feeling of discomfort that’s best described by a youtube comment that I found. “Kobe Bryant passed away” just sounds wrong. It happened too soon and too sudden even for people like myself that have only played basketball two times in the last four years. Kobe was about to embark on a lot of great endeavours after his retirement.
I’ve watched some of his interviews on the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets because of his involvements with the VC fund that he co-founded, “Bryant Stibel”. I don’t follow a lot of athletes to have a good benchmark, but I can easily tell from the few clips that I’ve seen that Kobe has a brilliant mind and a classy demeanour. His presence will surely be missed.
Kobe’s passing reminded me to appreciate every little thing in life. Sometimes, the best present for yourself and for those around you — is to be present. As a young professional, we’re often driven by what the future holds and in return, it fuels our ambitions. Clearly, this is not a bad thing at all. I myself have often fallen victim to this mentality due to my personality (ENTJ). What’s important is to strike a proper mindset balance between hustle and gratitude — after all, life is precious.
-Marco
Originally published at https://www.marcomanoppo.com on February 1, 2020.
