On lifelines and deadlines – II

To make my way into university I had to study a clean three-hour shift in addition to my schoolwork every day. To make my way out of it with good grades, I need even more. I am barely trilingual, and I can only admire Felipe who speaks four languages and aspires to start learning French one of these days.

My former manager at my last internship, a Roman, had grown a hobby of mocking me for seemingly “never having fun in life”. In Rome, I have been to a handful of nice parties and had good time; but frankly I never had “fun”.

“Two parties in a month are enough for me” says Felipe, “… and we could always throw parties here with a bunch of nice people… I prefer talking to partying anyway”. Me too, I’d take talking about stuff and learning a thing or two to “partying” any time… That doesn’t mean I don’t get to swim in booze, or try to catch the stars; but I have more fun when actually talking… (It is also strange to note how developing countries’ local drinks are a lot harder than those of the developed west… See vodka, rakı, rakija, the stuff they make in Latin America)

All my life, I watched as the only times when my father was having fun were dinners spent with friends and family. The chat would be about soccer, and generally over a glass of rakı. Only when asked, my father would start not only talking but lecturing about international relations or public administration. These were a part of his job, and never did I see him come home without the burden of his duty visible on his shoulders… I still like to think he is the main reason I turned out like this.

I came to one of Italy’s top universities expecting world renowned professors and a crowd of bright, young, visionary Italians… Those who have been to La Sapienza may, at this moment, be laughing heartily since the story is nowhere near that.

Until now, I’ve been to classes in which old-school professors regularly interrupt the lecture talking about how the new statute cuts into their wages. The students are a creative bunch, but apparently the majority’s only collective activities are to invent new ways to deem someone a fascist, complain about a law, or just complain about the government. (Actually, I really enjoyed one of their posters in which a chopstick guy was depicted throwing a swastika into the trash can…)

Felipe, 25, is a really fun guy… Before taking off to Italy he was already managing a private banking portfolio in Brazil’s biggest bank, not to mention those four languages...

I believe I am right. The West is going down. Here is the latest from HarvardBusiness writer Dr Marshall Goldsmith: “We in the West are just beginning to understand what globalization really means. It means that people across the planet are: competing to buy our products; producing products that we can buy for less money; and competing for our jobs.”