Tryna Be a Grown-Up

It's not a secret that all the cool kids nowadays are switching jobs and careers like shoelaces.  Gone are the days of gettin that good manufacturing job and sticking with it 'till retirement.  First of all those jobs don't exist anymore, but secondly, regarding the comparable, stable jobs that do exist--kids my age are getting bored and our idealism isn't meshing with the concept of coloring inside the lines.  We want to have careers that align with our values and allow us to do some good in the world.  We're also willing to take on some risk in order to achieve that.  We don't have kids, houses, or other assets that create drag on our willingness to drop a good job for something more fulfilling.  We gotta save the planet and like the environment and public health and like voting rights, racial discrimination and homeless or something. #Resist As I look around, I've realized that a lot of my peers are engaged in this hunt right now.  Even as us mill...

Here's a story about my day at work. Today one of the cleaning ladies (who I love and adore) that works at my office struck up some small talk with me, providing me with some sage advice.  (She's 57 years old and I'm 29 so it makes sense.)  We'll call her Martha. Martha's advice was basically to move home and find a husband, because "life isn't all work." We had a short conversation about her stance on this.  Now, I understand where she was coming from.  She meant it from a kind place.  She doesn't want me to grow up alone and lonely, and  because of my job I moved far away from home a couple years ago, and I live by myself.  I'm not angry or offended by what she said, but I am HELLA annoyed and frustrated.  How do you fight that logic? No, life is not all work.  Family and loved ones are important.  But I mean, like I told Martha, I got bills to pay.  (She was like "we all have bills to pay."  But like whaaaat?  S...

In my old blog I used to keep a running update of what I was reading at the time, so to kick off this blog, here are all the books I've ready so far in 2019 (in the order I finished them).  The underlined ones are the ones I'd recommend: Becoming -- Michelle Obama Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make Us Safer  -- Kamala Harris Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel -- Tom Wainwright The Dictator's Learning Curve: Inside the Global Battle for Democracy -- William J. Dodson All the President's Men -- Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein Daring Greatly:  How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead --  Brene Brown The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts  -- Gary Chapman We Should All Be Feminists -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower  -- Brittney C. Cooper Americanah -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Homegoing -- Yaa Gyasi Marching Powder...

My name is Aja (think "Taj Mahal" when you pronounce it).  I'm a millennial/liberal/BLACK WOMAN/special snowflake with a lot of thoughts and nowhere to express them, so I made this little blog.  Feel free to peruse at your leisure.  My interests include: R&B music (esp 90s, early 2000s) Economics (esp. micro level development interventions) Wonky policy things in general Books or TV shows that involve people with healthy, nuanced interpersonal relationships Social science-y non-fiction books (unless it's war/military/defense related, eww) Being right all the time Blabbing endlessly to whoever wants to listen to my strong opinions (shout to my homegirl Simone and to my boyfriend) Stuff about intersectional feminism and anything that generally involves black women shining and being the boss of everything Learning about people's religious beliefs, spirituality, or anything else that helps them make sense of the world