Pharaoh Syndrome

So now I'm pretty convinced that I have what I call "Pharaoh Syndrome". Let me explain...

The Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs built large monuments and increasingly larger pyramids to remind everyone who they were and to create a permanent place in history for themselves.

I work at a pool supply retail store. I do the same thing every day. I do about 25 water analysis tests, I "help" customers get rid of their algae problems and then act like their problem is unique when actually the other 3 customers in the store have the exact same problem and the exact same solution, I fix pool cleaners that have a total of 5 different things that could go wrong with them (and again I pretend that this never happens except this one time), and on and on until I get to go home 10 hours later. It's like the movie Groundhog Day where he gets trapped in the same day over and over and over...

Many of these people I help don't stick in my mind at all. In fact, the only ones that do are the ones that I complain about (I'm sure you'll hear ALL about them later on in this blog) or the ones that are extremely nice to me. Other than that, they are just a way for me to get my paycheck. Nothing sticks in my mind about them. Nothing. And some of these people even act like they don't even care that they're not remembered. It's as if they could not even exist and it wouldn't affect me at all.

That's what I'm scared of in my own life. I know, I know, my friends and family will all miss me if I suddenly wasn't here. But beyond that... Who (not in my circle of friends or family) would have their lives changed by me not being here?

This may sound pompous, but it's not that shallow. I believe it's something much deeper. I want to make a significant change in this world. I not only want people to know me or know my name, but I want them to know me because of how I changed the world for the better, even if the act was miniscule in comparison to maybe something the UN might do.

My family has done great things. I'm very proud to be a part of my family, both my mother and my father's sides. For example, my grandfather on my mother's side is part of an organization called the Gideons. You know that Bible that you can always find in a Hotel or Motel room? That was placed there by the Gideons. My grandfather might have actually placed that there for you to pick it up, read it and maybe change your life forever. And my grandparents on my father's side actually created, printed and published (on a small scale because of certain complications) the world's first international trade directory. Coincidentally, it was the first book entirely created on a computer!

And my parents; they moved up to Portland, Oregon with not very much, but a dream to publish a free family Christian newspaper. And we did it. 20,000+ copies every month. And that was back when you had to paste everything onto a big board which you turned into the printers. Now you just put it on a CD or DVD and hand it in.

But I still want to do something greater. I want to be known like how Elvis, John Lennon, Ghandi, Donald Trump, etc. are known. You can go to many different countries and they'd still know who Albert Einstein or Christopher Columbus or even Steven Spielberg was/is! I want to secure a place in time for my memory and for my family's honorable name.

I don't know how I'll get there yet, but I'm always working towards that goal.

The first step is getting out of this job...  :P

 - J