“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Teresa

Convivalis¹ m, f (neuter convivale); third declension
con = (samen) together, vivalis = (not even a word, but it looks like vivare: the second-person singular present passive subjunctive of vivo: I live.)

I hope your life is a convivial experience.

The world is full of people of different cultural backgrounds, races and genders, of which you are a mixture too. We’re all offspring of our Ancestors. I love Diversity is here to celebrate exactly that. There’s no specific reason why. Sometimes after being stuck in a certain rhythm of shifting between ups (inner victory and prosperity), and downs (inner suffering and chaos (stagnation)), you might just feel like taking a step back and appreciate yourself on a maximum level. – Treat yourself! –

For this campaign, Epicureanism has been a source of inspiration.
How do we know things?
In Epicureanism, all sense perceptions are true, for it’s the result of a sense-organ stimulated by a real object, which is represented in that perception as it is in reality. Everyone sees the world through his/her own eyes and thus, I would say, has his/her own truth. The more you know about these different perspectives, the more you could be able ~relativeren~ to comprehend your world and justify your own beliefs and ambitions. Then you can easily understand whatever it is you want to learn, achieve, feel, etc. in life. Isn’t that what education is for? (When you study different theories you’re doing the same thing.)

Life should be an enjoyable experience for everyone. How do you go about it? To let people inspire people feels like a good way to celebrate diversity. That’s why I’m looking for you.

~~ E.PN~~

I’m interested in hearing what you know and what moves you. Any topic is welcome! From quantum mechanics to enjoying the light of the sun.

Let Time Heroine be a product of us all.

What’s your life’s purpose?

Finding out what your inner mission is and how to put this into practice can be quite a battle. While coping with daily life you somehow also need to find out who you are. Hopefully those who don’t know what their true passion is yet can learn from me finding mine. In this article I’ll discuss my attitude towards the future when I was younger, what education has (or hasn’t?) done for me and my self-reflection strategy for finding my purpose.

At age 4, when people would ask me what my plans for the future were, I would vigorously tell them that I would want to become the next Oprah Winfrey. If my younger self were to be labeled, “absent minded dreamer” it would definitely suffice to define the kind of individual I was (and even till this day, that label suits me.) The (Dutch) schooling system motivated me to think about the future early on, as it embedded me in special classes for children with an exceptional IQ level.

In this system, it’s normal to pick one field and cling to it and as a child I was much inclined to dovetail other people’s behavior, consequently, the thoughts about myself in the future were heavily inspired by my environmental surrounding. Often I would overhear conversations where people would complain about how much of an idiot their manager is or how people neglect themselves because their work is so time consuming, et cetera. As a result of that, the question of; “What profession is fun, challenging and not a deprivation of my freedom?” became the central query that had been on my mind for the past 16 years. (Now I’m 20. Choosing the right path requires a lot of thought.)

The first “genuine” profession (since “Oprah Winfrey” isn’t a profession haha) that caught my interest was that of a psychologist. Before concepts like “don’t trust your neighbors” were introduced to me, everyone I would come across became a victim of my curiosity. So finding out you could actually specialize in learning about other people’s behavior for a living was a pleasant surprise. At the time, I was 10 years old, when (probably because of puberty) a depression managed to get the best of me. (For more information about this, if you’re interested, you could read the article “Suicidal Weakness”.)

Education has played an important role in facilitating me to find my purpose. What I very much enjoy about studying is connecting the dots between different fields of knowledge in order to get “the bigger picture”.

Your weaknesses aside: what role would you like to play in this oneness we call “the universe”?

“Always aim for the most beneficial,” my grandparents and parents would tell me. They were referring to picking subjects and courses that would leave me multiple ways of getting a proper job in the future. “You will have to work twice as hard,” would be the after-comment. I don’t know whether this idea is a differentia of my family or this is cultural, but I was spoon-fed with the perception that as a person of color “getting accepted by society” isn’t as easy. In this light, high-level education and good grades became the standard.

Studying “gymnasium” (Dutch Middle School until High School) was an interesting experience. I’ve met such diverse personalities during this period, in addition to learning Latin and ancient Greek which have changed my perspective on life for good. However, when I was in the middle of it, my appreciation of it began to decline. School started to feel like “a non-challenging waste of time” (although the development of this frame of reference was partially attributable to peer pressure). I much rather wanted to really make something of myself by putting my ideas for the future into practice and focus on mastering one subject instead of studying eight (or more).

Are we taught to dislike school?

Since helping others and getting the bigger picture interested me so much, I figured studying economics was right for me. In high school this was already one of my favorite subjects. It’s like mass-scale human psychology with numbers. (Also my grandfather, who I look up to very much, studied this subject.)  Learning new things I consider fun, but I’m far from a model student. The type of student who prefers to let the material pile up, that’s me. It takes quite some energy to “get in the zone”, so moments to study are carefully chosen. “The zone” stands for the feeling of complete concentration and excitement I experience after getting my mind to focus on just one thing. Achieving this gives me a headache sometimes, for there’s so much on my mind.

The first block started off as an interesting experience. I had traveled to other countries before, but the setting at the university was international in a different way. There were so many like-minded people with totally different backgrounds. You can learn so much from just talking to someone who’s from a different country! Also, the switch from High School classes to lectures was a nice one. The pace on which information was given seemed higher, which (most of the time) made it easier for me to keep paying attention and not let my mind “wander off”.

My grades, however, were bad. Really bad. It affected my self-esteem. Was I too stupid? I’d pursued my old study method of letting study material pile up, only to find out that to gain confidence for passing a test, I needed more time. This became a dilemma, because studying wasn’t the only thing that kept me busy. I started my company in the same period the course started.

In the second block my streak of bad grades continued, but for different reasons. “Studying” microeconomics drove me to intense self-reflection. This was (nerd alert) awesome on the one hand, but a bit confusing on the other. I analyzed my own decision making on a deeper level, for I was incentivized to ignore “common sense” and just follow my intuition. One question kept occupying my mind: why would I continue studying at the university if this makes me feel bad about myself? Getting a degree wasn’t a priority – it was just out of interest, so I found the study pace unnecessarily high. 9 years, for example, instead of 3 years to get my bachelor’s degree would have been more convenient for me. The fast growing pile of study material left no time to work on my own business, and I wasn’t getting ready for the job market anyway. My company is my future, which weighs heavier on my mind. As a student my results didn’t represent my competence and as a boss the development of my company was way too stagnate. So I quit university. I know I’m not stupid. Reading about economics is now a pleasurable pastime.

How do/did you experience being a student?

I was heavily disappointed in not being able to stick to my original plan, which was slowly starting up my “life’s business” while being a student. This was the first real plan that was entirely my own decision. Going to “gymnasium” was my parents’ decision in essence (considering I wasn’t allowed to choose a lower level of education). After having looked out to “finally be useful” in life for so long, I didn’t expect to quit after three months. But neither did I want to continue killing my own self-esteem.

My sadness aside, self-reflection has been the true key to getting these self-insights. There are two aspects that establish my reasoning. The first one is that I want my actions in the present to be an asset for the future. Like a law in my behavior, to not waste time. (Is that a survival instinct?) The second one is that I always take the well-being of others into consideration when doing or saying something. This I consider as an odd form of egocentrism, since thoughts about my future dominate my mind, but improving society is my main endeavor.

The tactic for getting to understand yourself better, or at least what works for me, is to ask other people questions about themselves – and compare perspectives – and to ask yourself questions about yourself. (In short: introspection and extrospection.) I’m talking about the hyper-random-out-of-this-world type of questions. The questions that will result in you hearing something you’ve never heard before. Listening to (jazz) music is also an effective tool for getting to higher (self) insights.

Do you find it hard to formulate questions? No worries! The Mind Light app provides these wild questions for you, which is useful when you’re on a date, at a party or – life-saver – in a very awkward situation. (Yes, I’m shamelessly promoting my first app :D.)

[This app will be renewed and re-released whenever I have the time for it.]

My true purpose is to spread wisdom on a world-wide scale. To help others realize themselves and make the world a better place. I’m not made for “the classic 9 ‘til 5”. Instead I want my life to feel like it’s one long holiday. By creating a platform on which others can share their perspectives on life (Time Heroine), sharing my own perspective on life, assisting artists in conveying their messages, starting small projects based on specific concepts (like the I love Diversity campaign) and building a network that is meant for self-development of the individual and inspiring modern business (E.PN), my intention is to propagate a broader view on self-knowledge.

I don’t have a degree, I don’t have investors funding my projects (it’s all low-budget, currently), I don’t have any working experience. Will I be successful in life? No idea, but I want to chase my dreams and try to make a change.

Don’t we all want to see better days?

[Note: This post has been originally written a few years ago. Even though, right now I am doing something different (Time Heroine doesn’t exist anymore), my goal is similar. I keep finding new ways to achieve the same thing: a new system.]

Frank Ocean – Bad Religion

From my own observation of history, I seem to notice a trend. It’s like there’s always a group of people who get associated with bad things happening in the world. During the Second World War the Jews were stigmatized with “being the cause of all evil”. (Actually anti-Semitism was already enforced throughout the whole of Europe (and beyond) way before that, but everyone knows about WOII.) With “terrorism” being today’s reason for fear, it seems like Muslims are the new target.

Do you recognize the same trend?

I was astonished by how serious this situation was, when I spoke to a friend. She’s a Muslim herself, and she told me about how her relatives witnessed hijabs being ripped off heads and people yelling at them how bad their religion is. If that’s not crazy enough yet, read this:

My friend herself applied for a job as a tutor. She got invited for an interview. When the company representative saw her, his facial expression changed. He looked quite shocked. They weren’t even in his office yet, when he told her: “I… I don’t know how to tell you this, but… We don’t hire eh… Well I couldn’t hear that you were… You know…” My friend didn’t understand what he was trying to say. “We don’t hire people of your religion, especially when they wear hijabs. I couldn’t hear that you were a Muslim on the phone. If I would have heard it, you wouldn’t have been invited to this interview.” Even before they reached his office, she was already sent away. (She’s a law student and told me that “religious aspect” of the organization’s policy is against the law.)

What is so bad about religious clothing?
Do you think religion is a topic that people can easily discuss today?

Sometimes I hear people say that religion is “bad”, because it causes wars. People fight each other and say their God has ordered them to. But I wonder: are the teachings of the religion the cause of evil, or do the people who interpret the religion just have bad intentions? From studying religion myself, I got the impression that the Scripture itself is harmless. (I’ve studied the Bible, Koran and Talmud for a bit – just out of curiosity. My “opinion” on religion is, however, quite uncommon, for I believe that there can’t be a universal interpretation of Scripture. You can show someone a Bible text and tell him/her how to interpret it, but that doesn’t mean that he or she has the same perception of the piece of text as you do. Even if you claim to believe in the same religion. You can be part of a religious community, but do you then automatically believe the exact same thing? Some Christians are more lenient than others, yet they’re all labeled Christians.)

Have you studied a religion?

I say “the new Blacks” because of the stereotype that is being associated with the way Muslims look. There was a time when black people weren’t considered human beings. After slavery and apartheid (one of the few Dutch words that are internationally known) were abolished, black people were still shunned by some communities. They only knew blacks as a lesser race, and expressed this through their propaganda. Today this still an item, but in a “less extreme” way, for black people get stigmatized as people who call each other “nigga” all the time, shoot each other up in gang wars, play basketball, listen to rap music and eat fried chicken. I’m black myself, and have received my own fair share of racist comments, too. (“How can you be intelligent if you’re black?” “Your dad must be a drug dealer. How else can you have money?” “Your Dutch is pretty good for a black person.” (And Dutch is my first language, haha.))

When I came back to the Netherlands from visiting my cousin in Ireland, there was a “life threatening situation” on the airport. There was a bomb threat and the police were searching people’s cars. They weren’t searching everyone’s cars, though. Only those of “people who look North-African” (which is a “euphemism” for “we’re looking for Moroccans”). The first thing I thought was: “Oh. So only people who look North-African are able to place bombs these days? Why weren’t they searching the cars of Chinese or Indian people?” How can policemen sense someone’s ancestry? The car searching turned out to be pointless, because the threat was fake. Excuse me, but isn’t it extremely discriminatory to profile people like this? Can you imagine being seen as a threat, just because of the way you look and what you believe in?

Have you ever been “racially profiled” and searched?

A bigger threat to our peace I consider the people who blindly believe in these stereotypes. You can tell someone “all Muslims believe that if you don’t have the same faith they have, you should be killed”, and he/she might actually believe this. They feel hate against races and cultures, and spread this, like a forest fire. (While we should work together and learn from each other to grow, in my opinion.) Did Donald Trump use this as a tactic to get votes?

What can we do against this “tunnel vision” on races and religion? How do we enlighten them on, for example, Islam is really about?

What do you think of this? Do you agree with me? Do you think what I say is COMPLETE NONSENSE? Please let me know! My intention is to collect reactions on this article, and then compose a response article to this one. I wonder what other people think about this and believe this should be discussed more. You can send an e-mail to responses@timeheroine.com. Please make the title of your e-mail the same as the title of this article.

Also if you’re – like me – interested in propaganda, the movie “Reefer Madness” is a must-see!

Categorie: carrière
Publicatiedatum:

Mijn grootste angst is over 30 jaar terugkijken op hoe mijn leven is verlopen en te denken “had ik maar…”. Ik ben dus al een tijd bezig (zeg maar gerust 9 jaar) met het uitvinden wat ik nou écht leuk vind, en denk inmiddels dat ik erachter ben wat ik wil en hoe ik dat wil bereiken. Wat ik wil is echter “niet normaal” en mijn strategie is nogal niet-mainstream. Gaat dit me lukken?

Wat ik niet wil is vanaf het moment dat ik klaar ben met school tot de dag dat ik met pensioen ga elke dag van 9 tot 5 voor een baas werken, uitgeput thuiskomen en vervolgens van alles willen doen maar om wat voor reden dan ook niet in staat zijn om dat te doen.

Wat ik wel wil is het volgende:

• Veel reizen
  Andere culturen zien, mooie plaatsen bezoeken, mensen van over de hele wereld leren kennen (internationaal sociaal netwerk ;)), ontdekken waar mijn roots liggen
• Veel leren
  Zo ver mogelijk doorleren op de universiteit, over de hele wereld seminars en symposia bezoeken, veel boeken lezen
• Schrijven
  Schrijven vond ik al leuk voordat ik werkelijk kon schrijven. Voorlopig houd ik het bij dit blog maar wie weet doe ik later meer?
• Zélf ondernemen
  Ik zou graag een paar van mijn bedrijfsideeën in de praktijk brengen

Mijn strategie maak ik stap voor stap duidelijk door middel van de “Carrière”-serie op theapprentice.nl. De kans dat mijn strategie een succes wordt is bijna net zo groot als de kans dat ik een grote fout bega, maar ik neem liever het heft in eigen handen dan dat ik de standaard “naar school, stage lopen, een beetje van bedrijf naar bedrijf tot je een vaste werkplek vindt”-route doorloop.

Met theapprentice.nl wil ik graag wat ik leer op mijn weg naar (hopelijk) succes delen, als hulp voor andere ambitieuze mensen die hun hart volgen en als duwtje in de rug voor de mensen die wel willen maar er nog niet voor durven te gaan.

Niet geschoten is altijd mis, nietwaar?

Welkom op theapprentice.nl.

(This was the re-written introduction. This piece of text is a link to the original one.)

Categorie: x
Publicatiedatum:

Heb je de “over theapprentice.nl” (link) pagina al gezien?

Ik heb besloten mijn carrière anders in te richten dan men gewoonlijk doet. Het is nu gebruikelijk om na de basisschool, het voortgezet onderwijs en een eventuele vorm van hoger onderwijs of middelbaar beroepsonderwijs voor iemand te gaan werken en vervolgens met pensioen te gaan. Deze vorm van levensinvulling wordt al op hele jonge leeftijd aangemoedigd. Ik wil niet zeggen dat dit fout is: ik wil zelf gewoon iets anders.

Het liefst wil ik al mijn capaciteiten optimaal benutten en zo onafhankelijk mogelijk zijn.

Opvoeding als motief (waarom wijk ik af van de kudde?)

Doel (nu beginnen. Combineren van dingen die ik interessant vind (het vak economie, architectuur, programmeren, verschillende kunstvormen, wiskunde) met dingen die ik wil doen (ondernemen, aanpakken van maatschappijproblemen, de wereld zien, schrijven, mensen op een andere manier laten denken, gebruikmaken van al mijn capaciteiten)

Keerzijde (risico)

Aanbeveling (weerlegging keerzijde)

Het is een vrijwel eindeloos pad, maar wat ik ook tegenkom: ik deel het graag.

Welkom op theapprentice.nl.

(I never finished it…)

Categorie: carrière
Publicatiedatum: x (2015-2016)

Op theapprentice.nl schrijf ik over alles wat ik tegenkom op het alternatieve carrièrepad dat ik heb gekozen. (link) Alles wat ik hier uit haal – of het nou positief is of negatief –  kan niet alleen leerzaam zijn voor mezelf, maar ook voor een ander. Daarom houd ik het online bij. Ik schrijf trouwens niet alleen over mijn carrière op zich. Nee, integendeel zelfs. Ik schrijf hier ook over de manier waarop ik mijn leefstijl zodanig aanpas dat ik mijn doelen makkelijker kan bereiken. En ik schrijf over maatschappelijke dilemma’s en andere actuele zaken. Er zijn al zat blogs waarop men zijn of haar ongezouten mening geeft over wat dan ook, dus dat hoef ik niet meer te doen. Hier belicht ik de zaak van verschillende kanten, en laat ik het vellen van een eindoordeel aan de lezer over. Ik schrijf niet alleen om mijn verhaal kwijt te kunnen. Ik streef naar maximale betrokkenheid van wie mijn blog ook leest. Daarom maak ik veel gebruik van polls, ontvang ik graag feedback en sta ik open voor het hebben van zo veel mogelijk gastschrijvers.

Carrière

Welke doelen wil ik bereiken? En wat voor stappen onderneem ik om deze doelen te bereiken? Dat lees je hier.

Lees meer

Het Gesprek

Actuele onderwerpen van verschillende kanten belicht.

Het Gesprek is er voor discussies die verder gaan dan het nazeggen van andermans uitspraken. Wil jij écht weten hoe iemand in elkaar zit? Je zou dan een van de artikelen uit Het Gesprek kunnen gebruiken, daar staan namelijk een hoop vragen in.

Lees meer

Levenswijze

Wanneer je een enorme bucket list (link) hebt moet je soms dingen in je leefstijl aanpassen om je doelen te kunnen bereiken. Wat voor dingen zijn dit en hoe wil ik dat gaan doen?

Lees meer

“Experimenten”

Is het verstandig om iets te doen waarvan je niet weet hoe het zal aflopen? Geen idee.

In deze artikelen zit een zeker risico, aangegeven door de “risico-indicator”. Hoe groter het risico, hoe groter de kans dat het bij jou net zo slecht gaat als bij mij of hoe groter de kans dat een ander een verschillend resultaat heeft.

-voorbeelden risico-indicatoren & bijbehorende artikelen- (nog niet gekeurd, vrijwel risicovrij, redelijk risicovol, groot risico)

Meedoen

Veel artikelen zijn voorzien van polls, om te zien hoe andere mensen die dit blog lezen over hetzelfde onderwerp denken. Het is niet erg wanneer we het niet met elkaar eens zijn. Ik zie het juist als iets goeds, omdat je zo leert hoe je een situatie van een andere kant kan bekijken. Daarom sta ik ook open voor feedback, die, als je dat wil, op dit blog gedeeld kan worden.

Wanneer besluit iets te doen waar ik weinig verstand van heb, maar jij wel veel verstand van hebt, denk je dan met me mee? Alsjeblieft? Ik, als “apprentice”, zou daar samen met andere lezers veel aan hebben.

Als je zelf iets wil delen (dat binnen het concept van theapprentice.nl past), maar geen volledig blog wil beginnen, neem dan contact met me op (link). Theapprentice.nl verwelkomt gastschrijvers graag.

Op de hoogte blijven?

Abonneer je hier.

Of liever een specifiek onderwerp volgen?

Klik dan hier.