I am a productivity/self-help nerd. We have established this. I have struggled a lot with trying to stay on top of things and still make time for whatever life throws at me. I think that’s a healthy attitude to have. These days, come the weekend, I have all the intention in the world to have a fresh start on whatever I have neglected and be the best Fin I can be. Then all the other stuff happens. You know, life and stuff.

I don’t want to come across like I am being whiny. I have learnt my lesson on that. The lesson is that being angry, upset etc. is exhausting, and I have no time for it anymore. Do I still complain? Absolutely. Am I proud of that? Not. It is a horrible way to be.

Long story short, I had to assist my mother with her phone and bank issues this morning. This was not what I had planned for today. I don’t complain. I know better than that. I have no problem going out of my way for someone else. But it always comes at a cost to me and gets more difficult daily.

Right now, the panic is over for now. I know this won’t be the last time I will be roped into something like this. I guess that’s the downside of being the resident young person in the household now. I wouldn’t call myself overly techy at all but in comparison to my mother, I am the reincarnated Steve Jobs.

Maybe my mother does see me as the almighty tech god who possesses boundless power. Maybe I could use this to my advantage. Something like convincing my mother she needs to upgrade her phone but to do so, I must also have my phone upgraded. That probably won’t work. I mean there is tech ignorance and there is gullibility. My mother is a smart cookie, with a smart techy cookie as a son. Lucky her. Lucky me.

Here is a hot take: calling customer service is the worst. We all had an experience where we are convinced the company would let you ring out until you gave up. Customer service that hates customers. I have worked in in-person customer service before. I have used in-person customer service before. That is how it should be—human-on-human contact. We were made for each other.

There is a term in stoicism called sympatheia. It means “we are made for each other”. We should all be working for the common good. That is something we lost in 2020 when that thing happened. We lost touch with people physically, mentally, and spiritually. We were not built for it.

I think that’s enough preaching for one day. I am going for a walk by myself. Yes, we were made to be with each other, but being alone can be good too. I am not a hypocrite.

Thank you for reading and thank you for being you. Yes, you.