August 10, 2008

This is a day that forever changed my life. My boyfriend and I both took a "mental health day" from work and while cuddling in bed I watched as Lehman Brothers fell, then Bear Sterns, followed by the rest of Wall St. thanks to the horrible greed and avarice these companies were allowed to commit due to lax regulatory laws of sub-prime mortgage packages and other financial instruments such as option betting that deceived millions of people around the world and led ultimately to the Great Depression/Recession of the modern era.

I trained all my life with the unending belief that if I could give one thing to the world, it would be to educate and help others manage their financial life with the understanding that better financial management makes it possible to put your kids in college, retire, pay your debts and own a home. I genuinely believed so naively that I could make a difference in this world and by this time I was in my Junior year of a Bachelors degree in Economics when it all fell apart.

I was devastated. The only equivalent I can provide is it was like having your heart broken and falling out of love all in one day. Suddenly I was without a plan, I had no next move. My entire faith in our "sound" financial system had been shattered and honestly I still don't have it back. So I have an Econ degree that I'm not using. I grew up fascinated by how the events of the 1929 Great Depression happened and perhaps I was naive to believe that we would actually learn something from that hard lesson; sadly we didn't. We got greedy and suddenly everyone who wanted it could get a mortgage, never mind that they were irresponsible and shouldn't have done it in the first place but it was everyone in on it. I remember at the height of the bubble before it burst I worked in a realtor's office and saw just how the entire system worked and guess what.....it didn't. The events that led to our 2nd truly Great Depression was both on the fault of the persons who failed to act reasonably and take responsibility for their actions and not sign a mortgage they knew they couldn't pay for, and a government that failed to impose credit controls to regulate this industry. As someone who has studied in depth economics, it is my firm belief that you need both a free market WITH regulatory controls, no other system will work. Also for those who aren't already aware, it is "normal" for our economy to go through peaks and valleys, so long as they don't go to extremes.

I think the sheer horror of what happened on 9/11 and its aftermath made the economy take a backseat. Understandable, but not acceptable. Since this day I still haven't completely figured out my path in life yet, and there's a huge part of me that wants to get back the passion for this industry I loved, and another part of me that says its time to move on. So I did. I became a writer. I have a book coming out in October of this year and yet I still wonder if I'll ever feel the way I did before this economic collapse took away my faith in mankind. There has always been greed and there will always be, but we as a people need to come together to bring our voice to those responsible and ensure this cannot happen again.

We are now seeing the resentment of that anger still reverberating today with the "Occupy Wall Street" protests going on now. The media has been asking what they want, but I know what it is - fairness. It's just that simple. That protest is about the single parent working 2 or 3 jobs to support their kids just to make ends meet. Or the unemployed worker (underemployed) with skills but cannot get hired. It's about the factory worker who watches helpless as their job is shipped overseas and within 3 months loses their home. It's about the reason we all wake up in the morning and go to work, to improve our own lives and those of our loved ones. It's a basic human need that we've somehow lost the ability to feel anymore. We need to remember why we're all here and why we work, its to live, not to see our futures shattered. It has been said that compound interest is the greatest force in the world and while that may be true, but compared to avarice I beg to differ. Greed is the greatest force in this world - period.

Children

Lately my boyfriend and I have been discussing children in the next few years so I'm posing a question to all you parents out there, how differently did your life change after you had your child? If you could go back and do it all over again would you knowing what you know today?

Starting Over

2011 has been quite a year for me both personally and professionally. It has been one of both exciting changes and disappointing lows, yet despite all of this I've managed to find an inner peace with starting over again in a variety of ways. I published my first book this year, due to be released in October and I've taken my first international trip to London in September. I stood up to corruption and bullies and lost my job as a result, and turned a passion into a potential new career. I've made and eased away from many new friendships and have been preparing myself for that next phase in life. I have no regrets no matter how difficult, trying or downright hard any of this year has been for me I know that it could always be worse and I remain humbled by the continuous new friends I've met thanks to social networking due to interest in my book and a shared love of Tudor history. Starting over may not be easy for anyone at any point, but it can be possible to pick up the pieces  again stronger and even better than ever.

Interest in the Paranormal?

I'm always interested in hearing the views of others both believers and skeptics on the issue of the paranormal. I personally believe that there is phenomena out there that we can't explain, whether it be through a higher spiritual being or leftover energy from a person who has passed on, etc. I also believe that the paranormal is just another field of science/study that we haven't fully explained or explored yet. I love watching shows like Ghost Hunters with the TAPS team because they seem to be one of the most scientific teams out there set on disproving paranormal activity in place of high EMF deposits in a home, rattling pipes or what have you; so that when they do encounter a true unexplained occurrence they have eliminated all other options.  I'd like to hear from you on what you believe. Do you believe in spirits/ghosts/otherworldly beings, etc.? If so what has helped shape your viewpoint or your lack thereof? Let's have a dialogue! Cheers!

Making No Apologizes

I realize that this article isn’t going to land me many friends, nor future lady bosses without a grudge but something needs to be said about this epidemic of women in the workplace who socially abuse their employees and even other superior’s subordinates. Where this hits the hardest is middle aged women who feel insecure in their position, whether it be how they obtained it or that they need to feel on equal playing field with a man; but their lashing out is evident, damaging and psychologically abusive. Younger women in the work place know what it feels like to work for a woman who constantly nitpicks, questions their judgement calls, denies opportunities for training or travel and passes them over for other "preferred" co-workers who in their view takes a kicking and keeps on going; even asking for seconds. This isn't me, nor is it a quality that has landed me many great bosses in the eyes of my superiors. 

We all hear of bullying from children at school and while that is entirely serious, so is bullying in the workplace. Take the case of the VA Magazine Editor who was accused of bullying her subordinate so badly that she took her own life. If you are one of the ones who suffer in silence taking this b.s. from your bosses or know someone who is, the best way to defeat a bully is to take a stand and do what's right. It may cost you your job, but it puts the bully back at the level they really are - low and insecure. 

I would be lying to you if I didn't admit that my failure to put up with the false rumors of sexual harassment from my own female boss about a male co-worker didn't fire up a heat in  me that put a target on my back and is most likely responsible for me being unemployed today. But I'll tell you something, no matter what she threw at me or her partner in crime, I took it gave it back to her even harder. She went so far as to praise me to my face and bash me to my peers until I publicly called her out for her, which naturally she lied about. I'm the kind of person in general, forget employee that if you have something you want to say, say it but be prepared and I mean fully prepared for the consequences to follow. While I was let go less than a week later on trumped up charges, I'm free and happy following my true passion of writing and what I want to do. I'm certain I'll still get back into the work force at some point but I wont be changing my attitude any time soon towards bullies or their protagonists, I make no apologizes for doing the right thing. Funny thing about karma is that I'm going to have a book come out this Fall which hopefully will be mildly successful while she's still having literal emotional breakouts in her office each week and admitting to abusing psychiatric meds. Ah karma :)  So I implore all of you where you see or hear workplace bullying going on, to stand up, say something and stop it. While adult suicide statistics due to bullying haven't been conclusive and are rare, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Be the bigger person and never make any apologizes for that.