KWICK 6: Reflection, Faith, and Missing

Thought of the Week:

I have been in North Dakota for a little over a year now. During this time, I learned a lot about myself and where I want to go in life. Here are the top 3 lessons:

• 1. Family and friends are important. I've stated this quite a few times. I have always lived within driving distance of my family, and it has been a while since my best friend, and I have lived so far apart. Living close, and being able to get to them quickly if something happens, is important to me. It has become more important with my goddaughter being born and my grandparents getting older. Maybe this will change if I get married, but as a single person, the stress and feeling of missing out is heightened while living so far away.
• 2. My career aspirations aren't as high. A couple of years ago, I had grand plans for my career, but I am at a point where I'm wondering whether I need to make any more money. I currently am in a job as a GS-13, Step 2. You can look my pay up on the OPM website if you are interested. I have enough as a single person, and after ten years, when my student loans are paid off, I'll have a lot of extra money and will focus on giving back. I value personal time over climbing the career ladder. As an attorney, there will be busy times when I will need to work longer; however, 40 hours a week is the norm for me. More hours are the exception.
• 3. It's okay to be comfortable and content. The internet, the culture, and even the church sometimes make it seems like your life has to be extraordinary. You need to be rich or wealthy, you need to be an entrepreneur, or you need to be the star of your life. I don't believe that so much anymore. I've thought about what I want my legacy to be. When I die, I don't want people to only talk about my career. I want my family to say how I impacted their lives for the better. I want to be known as a person who listens, gives good advice, and is generous. I don't want people to remember the times I wasn't present. I want people to remember the day-to-day impact, not the momentous impacts.

What I've Consumed:

Missing

This film is currently streaming on Netflix. This movie is wild! It is a standalone sequel to Searching, which came out in 2018. The film follows June Allen, who tries to find her missing mother after she disappears on vacation with her new boyfriend. The movie is more suspenseful than thrilling. I enjoyed this movie a whole lot. It definitely makes a statement about our culture's fascination with true crime. June said something in the movie along the lines of "This isn't a show; this is my life." True crime can be beneficial in many ways, but it also can exploit people's pain. I think this movie highlights that dichotomy. There are some aspects that require you to suspend disbelief, but I think the movie is so good because you can see something like this happening in this day and age. I highly recommend the movie.

Documentaries

There are a few documentaries that I watched over the long weekend. Most recent were the documentaries regarding Hillsong. I watch a lot of different types of documentaries, both current events and historical ones. One thing I notice is current event documentaries are obvious in their bias depending on who is included. While they try to be nuanced, it is hard to do so when all parties are not involved. Current event documentaries, just like podcasts, are meant to entertain as much as they are meant to inform. They have to tell an intriguing story. Historical documentaries are harder to spot in their bias unless you know where they are getting their research from. In How to Take Smart Notes, the author states, "[w]hile we seek out dis-confirming arguments and facts that challenge our way of thinking, we are naturally drawn to everything that makes us feel good, which is everything that confirms what we already believe we know." So with that in mind, I try hard not just to listen to or watch one documentary on a subject. If I am really interested, I find a relevant book to read as well. I try to be very conscious of my bias on a topic.

Faith and Christianity

I have had a lot of ups and downs with Christianity. I go through these stages. I am not a very emotional person. I am not the type of person who would cheer at basketball games and sit quietly at church. I was a quiet observer at both. I always had an internal conflict about my response. In the last few years, there has been a lot in the Christian space about deconstructing. Over the same time, we have seen Christian nationalism on the rise. So my faith this year has been a lot of questioning myself and Christians in general. It's hard separating the Jesus of the Bible from the people who proclaim Him. It's hard seeing a Christian being black and white about topics when a big part of Christianity is based on faith. I believe there is nuance in Christianity that is seemed to be lost. I am still on this journey. I am still learning. But I do know one thing for sure, Christianity is a journey filled with humanity. How this truth presents itself in my life is something I am still figuring out.

📚 Currently Reading:

I am still reading the following two books and haven't made any more headway into them. I also have some library holds that are available, so I will be switching between a couple more books this week.

• 13% completed. The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth by Jermaine Fowler
• 26% completed. Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction