It's All Relative

Whenever I'm asked why I want to change jobs... my response is the same.

I really value work-life balance and as much as I love my co-workers, I'm sick of having dinner with them. Somewhere down the line, I hope to have a family and the idea of eating dinner with my co-workers instead of them saddens me. A bit preemptive but completely legit.

Whenever I'm asked if I like my job... my response varies.

I really have learned a lot in terms of research skills, Microsoft excel expertise, project management, treading through good and bad team dynamics and delivering a satisfying (most times) product under constantly changing, challenging and often unrealistic deadlines, but as with any job, the routine nature that it often becomes is not always as profound or enlightening as one hopes for. Other times, I'm grateful that the Company I work for has an awesome compensation package (when considering benefits and time off), is reputable and well known if I move jobs and supports community involvement and supports me in efforts to fight against breast cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's, etc.

Whenever I'm told I work too much... I just shrug it off. Well, until I went to San Jose that is.

You see.. up until my 4 month tour up north, working a bit on the weekends, a bit after I got home from work and anytime someone e-mailed me for something-- didn't seem peculiar. Picking up a manager's call at 7 AM was normal. In fact, it was expected and pretty much what every other good co-worker did. Right?!

So really it was all relative.

And somehow.. I keep seeing this theme of "it's all relative."

This weekend was the California young single adult (YSA) conference. The theme was Ephesians 2:19 No More Strangers and it was a packed weekend of speakers, workshops, and social activities all focused on (1) reaching out to one another and those around us, (2) becoming better citizens, and (3) living a temple-worthy life. The conference was held simultaneously in eleven locations around California mapped by the temple districts. Apparently, it was organized because the priesthood leadership of California -- under the direction of the Area Seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- wanted us young LDS adults to come together to become spiritually strengthened and more unified.

I'm quite confident the mission was fulfilled and each and every one of our testimonies were strengthened. I witnessed so many who had gone inactive and were so touched by the Spirit and the realization of how real it all was. It was a huge spiritual awakening and so tremendously amazing. The counseling provided to all of us ... the stories shared with us... and the constant reminder of how powerful the Atonement was.. awesome! Yet... among all the stories- the chuckles, the emotional tings of oh my! I can relate! or even the teary eyes.. I couldn't help but ponder some examples and conclude... I'm not that bad.

But it's because it was all relative. Case in point: during the Relief Society's talk about provident living, the speaker gave an example of her "cute" daughter-in-law who was $25,000 in debt. I turned around, eyed my friend and whispered WOAH. We walked away thinking... we're not $25,000 in debt, we must rock instead of.. hmmm, we will continue to pay off all our credit card debt and start budgeting!

Later that day, we asked the men from priesthood what they had learned about. They told us they were taught how to better treat the sisters with examples such as shouldn't tell their any girl/woman/girlfriend/wife that the food she just prepared tasted almost as good as store bought.... (errrr) or that their hair resembled that of their neighbor's dog (ummmm).

The examples were a bit extreme. Nevertheless, they were funny. But in reality... they seemed to confirm to us that we weren't too bad. We seemed to be doing okay.

Which goes back to...it's all relative, right?!

Unless.... you compare yourself to Christ... who is perfect.
Unless.... you start to liken your own actions to those of Christ.

So turn your relativism towards Christ and you will always be seeking to improve yourself and not settle with .. I'm not that bad.