Processing the Big Picture

Hi friends!

I have missed you!

I have been working and working out and lifting weights and sunning my psoriasis in limited doses (it really helps it go away and another reason why I can't wait to go South...sunshine and saltwater!!!), and daydreaming about life in less than 4 months!!!!

I have also been processing.

I feel ill even typing what I am about to share, but I feel like I can't start censoring now.  I have come too far with my honesty....please don't judge me.  PLEASE.

So, potential.  Yes, I need to address this.  Because it has been bothering me.

I didn't work up to my potential.  I should have worked harder in high school and college.  I know this. I could have been more.  I should have achieved better career-wise.  I want to go back to school for a masters degree for this very reason.  To prove that I can for myself. I was so smart, top of my class, until I was 15 and fell apart from self esteem issues.  It has haunted me.  My parents thought I was destined for the Ivys until my sophomore year of high school.  I let them down, but mostly, I let myself down.

School jazz aside, I am proud that I have always had a job since I was 15.  I was a babysitter, lifeguard, waitress, bartender, bar-back, restaurant hostess, camp counselor, pizza maker, swim lesson instructor, receptionist at a dental office, vacuum cleaner saleswoman (NO JOKE and a great story as I just learned that it was actually a drug ring and I had NO idea when I worked there), and a nanny all before I graduated from college.  I had all of these jobs for a while until location made me have to leave them.  I always excelled at my positions, often got promoted, and never had a problem picking up things quickly.

I accepted my first real job within 3 weeks of leaving my college campus.  I interviewed for 4 jobs and were offered all of them (it was a different time before the recession).  I have never not been asked back for a second interview.  I am great at work (well, up until rather recently when some people have not actually seen my potential, but that is okay, too!).  Work is one of my strengths.

Crush on the other hand, was in school until 26.  Then, passing big exams and licensings.  He never worked a job until he was 28 years old.  It was a job that he didn't even have to interview for.  He once worked for a few weeks for a family friend while pursuing his masters and then once went out on a job interview for a potential position, but was not offered it.  His experience is limited.

Crush is simple in some ways.  I had to teach him how to tip.  I had to teach him how to speak to servers (unless you have worked at a restaurant or had friends or family do it....you have no idea how hard it can be), and how be patient at restaurants...he would ask for water, bread, and wine from the hostess before we were even sat at our table and visited by our server....it read as rude, but he had no idea that it wasn't correct as he often had people serving meals in his own home growing up.

I had to explain how hard work is for most because he honestly had no idea.  Sometimes.....I think Crush either lived under a rock until he met me or was brought to the year 2012 (when we met) in a time machine or a spaceship.

I feel weird sharing this, but Crush is supported mostly by his family.  He is being groomed to take over one of their several businesses.  I am being supported by my family too right now, but not exactly in the same way. I am saving money while I live at home.  I cover all of my expenses, the folks just don't make me pay rent which is awesome (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!).  It isn't exactly the same as generous and as awesome as my p's are.  Hell, I am spoiled too...it's all relative I suppose.

I have always had a job though and even if I am not the best saver...work has been a part of my life.

Crush really doesn't make much money on his own...I just learned about this, this week.  It is less than I ever made in my corporate jobs and it surprised me a bit.  He was born into a really good life.  I don't know numbers, but I know that he has more savings at less than 35 than my Dad ever will (my dad worked for the SAME company for 42 years!) and that is just the tip of the iceberg...there will always be more, much more.....so much more.  It will come over the years.

Yes, I have to sign a prenuptial agreement.  We have discussed this.  It is simply how his life is.

It is not my money...it is from all of the generations and generations before him.  It is hard to get my head around it and I am weirded out by it.  It keeps me up some nights.  It makes me nervous.

I am glad I met Crush online and he never told me any of this until way into our relationship when I started putting things together and realizing that his own work experience and life experience would not have been able to produce what he has.

I would love him even if he had nothing and in some ways, I think that he would be better developed and more of a man if this was the case....if he had to work like most of the rest of us do in life.

So, my boyfriend hasn't ever had to work up to his potential because the objective of making money was never really forced.  Yet, he is frugal (sometimes alarmingly so) and great with money and investing.  He is resourceful and not wasteful and genuinely kind and charitable (even though he thought 5 percent and not 20 percent tips were okay before he met me....SORRY to all of those hard working servers out there....please don't spit in our food when you us out for dinner!).  He has a heart and soul that is so pure and good, it astounds me sometimes.  He was raised right in many ways. He wants to live little and save big.  To not take advantage of what was given to him...I respect him for this.

I am helping Crush finish a few things he started and be a bit more hands on with his own life.  He wants to be.  He does.  No one allowed him to be. But, I know his folks (who I do adore) perhaps thought he would develop differently.  Be more of a man seeing how he was groomed (prep school, great college, good masters programs)....yet, it didn't all click for Crush somehow.

Crush wants to know how to do certain things around the house, how to be better at work, how to treat clients...he isn't entitled...he is the opposite.  His sheltered life makes him seem simple sometimes. He is the most literal person I have ever met. Almost oblivious to modern life.  I doubt anyone, but me, knows how smart he really is.  I could see people thinking otherwise and how that can hurt him business-wise.

I believe that people in a good relationship bring out the best in one another.  I know Crush and I were brought together to be the greatest we can be as a team.  Crush has made me patient, even tempered, sweeter, less vulgar, and kinder.  I have learned to stop and smell the honeysuckle and enjoy a cup of coffee without text messaging.

In return, I have helped him learn some life skills, join the year 2013, offered him confidence and support.  I have taught him how most other people live.  He is different and very blessed and he never knew it, not really.

I want Crush to work towards his full potential.

Not for money.

Not for my own personal gain.

I want Crush to be fulfilled by his own interests because I know he doesn't see the greatness I see in him yet....because he was never really forced to develop on his own.

Change

I feel a change happening in me and I am really excited.

I am FINALLY starting to get some balls.

If you owe me money for my work, you will be paying.  For real.  Or, we are going to small claims court or Judge Judy (I LOVE JUDGE JUDY!!!).

I am not scared anymore.

I deserve respect, common courtesy, and gratitude for my hard work.

I don't work for free.

Pay or go away.

No more work without a deposit AND a signed contract.

I would rather take good business and get good referrals than take bad clients and pay out of pocket for stupidity.

NO more Mrs. Nice Guy all the time.

I live in reality and if you want to work with me, than you will have to, too.

I have a talent, a gift, and I care more about other people than most people do.

If you work with me, you are lucky.

I give everyone my heart, soul, sweat, tears, and 110 percent effort.

If you think you will get a better deal for the level of work I do, you are CRAZY.

There is no one quite like me when it comes to my work ethic.

Sleepless nights, driving 500 miles out of my way free of charge to get something irreplaceable, getting deals because I am kind, honest, and ethical and because people WANT to work with me.....THANK YOU!

I give people in my industry a good name.  I don't take money out of other people's pockets behind their backs.

Damn it feels good to be a gangster.