How do you decide the kind of life you want to have? And, when do you decide this? A lot of people will answer “When you start working”. Another bunch will reply, “No, the moment you enter high school”. Another small crew will say, “Actually, the first day of school”. And, leaving the cuter answer for the last, some will add “When you’re born”.

Having so many different points of view is really confusing. So, let’s take the one provided by society in general: “The day you finish high school”. Why? Because of all that that implies: saying good bye to your friends, to your parent’s house, to your childhood… you know: the losing part, which makes any human being start worrying about who they are. And do I know about losing! I’m 19 years old and I’m on my second year of college. That would practically mean that my life started almost two years ago. And if that’s true, I can’t imagine a scarier way of starting a life. But I wasn’t worried, neither confused, because before I could start taking decisions on my own, I received… a welcome package!

Of course, the package was delivered to my parent’s house with a huge note to remind me the oldest world known pray: CARPE DIEM. Which means: Seize the day. In the upper side of the box it said Welcome to the rest of your life, please, use it properly. Inside, there was another box where it said I almost forgot! With properly I mean: don’t waste it!. Inside this box (and continuing the mamushka doll annoying situation) there was another box with a relieving last note: I mean… you’re young. You don’t understand how the world works. I putted the instructions inside this box. Read them and then you’ll understand everything. I finally opened the last box. And there it was. Nothing. Nothing at all. “But… but…” (I read the notes over and over again looking for a secret message ) “…what do I do now?”. Desperated, I ran for advise and all I got was “Study a career. Any kind”; “Get a job. Any kind”; “Do anything. But do it now!”

I’ll spoil the end of the story. There never were instructions. And, of course, the box never existed. At least not for me. I listened to the advises, the complains, the critics and finally made a decision. I’ll not say that “I know which career I want to pursue”, I’ll say it in a way that sounds more important:

I’ve decided that I want to make a life based on Public Relations.

Wow. It sounds pretty awesome, huh?

There are a lot of confusions about this career because it’s a little bit of being a Publicist, a little bit of being a Marketing Person and a little bit of being a Journalist. And that’s what I love about PR: you can do a little bit of everything, you can relate to any kind of professional and you can always go further. The sky is the limit!

OK, but, going back to Earth… what do we have in the negative side? Sometimes… you have to do a little bit too much of everything. What I’ve learnt in my 2 years as a PR student is that responsibilities only increase as time passes. I’ve seen extremely stressed PR teachers. I’ve seen how my dad, who is also a PR, and even being al calmed as he is, sometimes just can’t take the pressure. I’ve seen how at the end of the day, PR professionals finish their work with no strength left. And I’ve heard, more than once, “You won’t be able to handle the pressure”.

So, after seeing, hearing and knowing how hard being a PR can and will be… why in the world would I want to become one? Because I can. Because I want to handle the responsibilities. Because I want to prove that you can be under pressure without being pressured. Because I really want to go further. And sometimes, going further is not only about actions. Going further means letting you mind go abroad, convinced that it doesn’t matter what happens today… it’s worth it.

Good for us. Good for all the PR students around the world. But what happens to those who have another kind of job?

If there’s something no one can deny about the Slow Movement is its diversity. From the highest professional to his lowest subordinate can pursue a slower life, a slower way of living. The bright side? There’s not negative secondary effects.

It’s really scary to pursue a dream and make a life out of it. Billy Joel would say “Dream on. But don’t imagine they’llall come true”. And he’s probably right. But in the end, what’s important it’s not the kind of life you want to have, it’s what you do to have it. You can have dreams or pursue them.

I’m going for the second choice. What about you?

My latest blog at Huffington Post is on the power of Slow Thinking.

For the next two posts, I intend on discussing the idea and importance of reading.  First as it pertains to me personally, and second as to its wider implications.

 A couple of years ago during school I was reading a book in a free period.  When I have the time, it helps break the monotony of classes.  But my friend had been making fun of me for it. 

 “So,” I said , “what’s wrong with that?”

 I was rather defensive since it was a book by Frank Herbert, a favorite author of mine.

 “It’s boring! Besides,” he said sardonically, “you’re not doing anything! You just sit there and look at a bunch of words.  Where’s the fun in that!?”

 And that’s what it comes down to for so many people isn’t it: where’s the fun at? I remember sitting there, momentarily stunned, and wondering if that was the beginning of  my complete social demise. 

 “But no?” I thought, “It’s not like I’m the only one who reads!”

 I was surprised at how close to the truth that errant thought actually was.  I can remember surreptitiously asking friends whether they had read anything good lately – just to test the waters.  I couldn’t believe how many said they hadn’t read a book on their own in years.  Sure, they read To Kill A Mockingbird because we had to. They gritted their teeth through Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, but that was the extent of it.  So that made me think: why do I like to read?

 So I’ll put out there the few things that I felt were the most important to me when it came to reading.  First, finding what kinds of books I like to read.  Sounds easy, right? Well for a lot of kids you find that they just don’t know what they like.  They’ve never explored the different genres to get a feel for what interests them.  Once you hit on something you enjoy, you go back for more!  Think of the thousands of young kids that are now fantasy nuts because of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  When you have a new series or novel sitting in front of you by your favorite author, it’s exciting! It’s the only virus that doesn’t make you sick!

 Second, the example set by my parents.  My fondest memories are of my mom and I going to the library on a Saturday, getting a big bag of books, and going home to flop on the bed and read.  It was something she genuinely enjoyed and she wanted to instill that enjoyment in me.  Her with a 1000 page historical fiction on Cleopatra, and me with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are.  It made reading more fun!  If there was a word I didn’t know, I was told I always should ask.  If there was a picture I liked, I would share it with her.  Sometimes she would tell me about what was going on in her book to change things up.  It became an activity that was engaging to all the facets of my curious 5 year old mind. 

 And that’s the most important part.  Reading does not mean sitting in a dark room with a light by yourself.  Reading means engaging yourself in a story that takes you away from your normal life and transports you into the world created by the author.  You can be Hester Prynne in Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, walking down 17^th century Jamestown with a scarlet “A” on your chest. You can be Harry Potter soaring around the Quidditch field trying to find the golden snitch.  You can be Ender from Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game walking down the halls of Battle School.  You can be anything!

 So — ask your kid what he wants to be when he grows up, if he says fireman then give him a big ole’ book about fireman! What’s the worst that could happen? A lecture from your 5 year old about the need for fire extinguishers!? 

There are a lot of things that determine our lives and sometimes it seems that there is so little we can do to change it. Politics, world economy and international relations seem to be living in a separate world from us, ordinary people. It’s no wonder that people become more and more detached from what is going on around them. But is there really nothing we can do about it?

For two years now a group of Estonians have expressed great initiative and eagerness to contradict that kind of uncertainty. In May 2008 around 50 000 people came to the fore to clean the forests, parks and roadsides from garbage. In just five hours of work around 10 000 tons of trash was collected which could be said was the best birthday present for our country (Estonia turned 90 last year). The slogan of the project was simple: “Let’s do it!”

This May the initiative continued but under a new slogan and concept. It was called “My Estonia”. People came together as well, but this time not to do something but to put their heads together and think of ways to make the world a better place. There were agencies of that initiative set up in every county, village and town - close enough to everyone living in this country. They discussed the issues that were bothering them and tried to come up with suggestions on what should be done. No bluf, but concrete ideas.

This week one of the leading newspapers in Estonia publised some of those ideas, just to give us a peek on what was discussed. I was more than surprised that among proposals on how to make traffic safer and improve our education system, which are absolutely important topics as well, the slow movement has also crawled into the heads of so many people around me. Here are some examples:

How to make the most of the economic crisis?

• become friends with nature - go hiking, biking etc.
• talk to your children about how the world works
• do some gardening and help your neighbour in it as well
• pick your own berries and mushrooms from the woods
• bring back romance, take a midnight walk under the starry sky
• improve your cooking skills