I was thinking about the death of Steve Jobs, and how we idolize some very specific people in society. Think about all the people you look up to. I know my list includes people like Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, and even my sisters.

All these people are amazing. But take a step back and pretend like they aren’t. Pretend like they aren’t famous, like they aren’t people that everyone looks up to. Pretend like they aren’t media figures and people that the world will, without a doubt, memorialize after their death.

Now, aren’t they just people? They are people who, at some point, questioned things just like we do. They struggled with crazy relationships and self-esteem. They stressed about their career and what their resume looked like. They looked at religion and struggled to figure it out. They got in fights with their parents. They struggled with money, they were—at some point—unemployed.

In so many ways, they were just like us. Just human.

Part of this, I think, is me reconciling my ambition with my youth. Last night, I had a bit of a panic attack. I heard about Steve Jobs’s death, and on top of my sadness I began to think about how little I’ve accomplished in comparison. At how, in the past 22 years, there are so many things I’m proud of, but so few things that have changed the world.

Today I let myself catch a breath. I started thinking about how, at some point, Steve Jobs probably stood in a shower at a gym somewhere and wondered what the future would hold for him. Just like, probably, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, and countless others have probably done.

Everyone starts somewhere. Ambition is essential. Youth is temporary.

I created this account years ago, but it just sat dormant. @AlexPriest has inspired me to use Tumblr. He has a robust account that makes it worth the time to learn and populate.

Awh, thanks for the shout out, Patrick! Glad to see you on Tumblr.

You feel sharp, like a knife, like a tack, like obsidian. Your aim is true. Your attack is fierce. You can handle anything today, which is good, because your people need you.

Now I’m not a believer in astrology or horoscopes, but my horoscope today caught my eye. It’s Monday. I’m stress out. I’ve got a lot going on. Classes are working me hard, and I’m balancing a lot of other responsibilities on top of that. But ya know what? I can handle it.

This is something I think everybody could use a little reminder of sometimes. Regardless of how incredibly busy we get, how stressed out we are, or how much we’ve got going on in our lives, we can always handle it. Nothing is outside our capability, and the only way to improve is to continue to push yourself to do more, to learn more, and to achieve more. So bring it on, Monday. I’m gonna take you down.

Work today was good. I won’t delve into that much more because before too long I’m going to be writing blog posts for the American University Career Center about my internship experience, which I’ll crosspost here. After work, I attended my very first ever Social Media Club DC event, and it was fantastic! The event was held at the Consumer Electronics Association headquarters in Arlington and featured two speakers from the CEA, Megan Pollock and Joe Gizzi, as well as Frank Gruber, entrepreneur and co-founder of TECHcocktail, shinyheart and thankfulfor, among others.

But enough links and name-dropping–what did they talk about? Well, fresh back from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, they talked about tech of course! And, naturally, how it all fits in with social media. Joe Gizzi, especially, had some really interesting things to say about the CEA’s social media strategy to build buzz and deal with attendee complaints/suggestions at the conference. He talked about software they use (namely, CoTweet) as well as how they keep track of much of their dizzying analytics (mostly Google Analytics and CoTweet). For the next few days, you can see some of the livestream from the event here on Twitter. Needless to say, it was enlightening and fun, and I’m already looking forward to the next SMC-DC event (which just so happens to be a Social Media Breakfast next Monday morning!).

Anyway, one last thing I’ll leave you with–an entry from One Day At A Time In Al-Anon. No, I’m not crazy. I just picked it up for free at the Social Justice Camp last weekend (they were giving out free books–all in the name of literacy!) because it looked like a fun thing to have on my bookshelf. It provides some inspirational little passages for each and every day of the year, and today’s seemed particularly relevant given my hectic schedule as of late. Here it is:

No matter what the problems are that we’re trying to cope with, a major source of frustration is trying to encompass too much at once. We forget that we need to deal with only one day at a time, and try to crowd too much into the waking hours of that day–or we even extend it beyond the point of weariness. We can get more out of each hour–and accomplish more–if we try to cope with only as much as is possible in that one day.

Appropriate, no? Always learning.