There’s more to life than grades, careers, and prestige. + My thoughts on Barbenheimer!
Hello! It's been a while! 😸
Disclaimer: The writing below represents my opinions, views, and thoughts. They are not a reflection of my employer.
It’s been awhile!
I likely won’t post as often - and probably shouldn’t because I’m trying to keep a lower profile as a public servant. But if I’ve got any interesting thoughts that doesn’t necessarily have to do with my work, I’ll try to share more often!
There’s more to life than grades, careers, and prestige.
August 17, 2023
This is, in a way, a warning that burnout is real and it’s dangerous, but I hope it’s also hopeful that there’s more to life: Recently, I’ve been informally mentoring a few individuals who are just starting their careers or are students still in school. They’re sharing how stressed they are. I’ve had to tell them that their health and well-being, family, and friends have to come first.
Yesterday, I hosted a pizza lunch for the co-op/FSWEP students working at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada/Commissariat à la protection de la vie privée du Canada. These students are finishing up their summer terms and will be returning to school in September. It was wonderful to see Executives at the OPC – including the Commissioner! – come by to say hi to the students and give them a few words of advice, perhaps convince them to consider joining the OPC full-time after graduating! Leadership and a culture of empowerment starts at the top and it’s one of the reasons why the OPC is one of the best places to work in the federal public service!
My reflection is this: These students at the OPC and the younger people who I’ve been mentoring on the side have been telling me about how stressed they are about school. About getting the best grades. About how they “need” to get into the best grad schools. Worrying about their future careers. And they’re sacrificing their sleep, their friendships, their overall health and well-being.
My advice: I was once in their shoes. It’s easy to lose yourself and not take good care of yourself. But everyone finds their way in the end. I failed courses in undergrad. I thought all of these doors were closing on my future. But I turned out ok!
What impacted me the most from my time in school was not the stress, the grades, the anxiety. It was the friendships, and sadly, the friends I lost to mental illness. There’s more to life than grades or a prestigious scholarship/accolade or getting into a prestigious grad school or starting a prestigious career. We all have to take care of ourselves first and take care of others. Empower each other. Lift while we climb. Never losing sight that we’re all human in the end.
Eventually, with perseverance, hard work, and community to support you, you’ll get to where you need to be.
My thoughts on Barbenheimer
July 23, 2023
Barbenheimer Part 1 – Barbie
Greta Gerwig created a perfect film, with a script that hits all the right points, has a bold directorial vision, and impressive acting. The movie is inventive, subversive, and just hits all the feels. Barbie deconstructs and skewers modern day (“white saviour”) feminism, patriarchy, and the entire construct of gender norms. I laughed, I cried, I audibly gasped and shouted “OH MY GOD” at all the sharp lines. I don’t know how Gerwig got away with all the jokes and references, because some were just wild.
There’s too many incredible things and hilarious jokes about this movie, that it’s hard to list them all. Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were pitch perfect, but I also think America Ferrera deserves so much praise for her role. Her speech about the paradoxes of womenhood is both scathing and inspiring. The scene where Barbie is in the park, watching people go through the joys and sadness of everyday life, and her feeling human emotions was beautiful. Michael Cera’s Allan has one hell of a scene that made me laugh so hard.
But oh my God, the jokes. Just a few in quick succession: Stephen Malkmus and Pavement, Zack Snyder cut of Justice League, Proust Barbie, The Shining, and… cameo spoiler alert: John Cena.
And Gerwig sticks the finale so well. The final third just hits you. The final scene before the “epilogue” made me cry so hard.
This isn’t a movie about nuclear annihilation, but it’s a deep existential reflection about what it means to not just be a human, but what it means to be a woman in a deeply flawed human world.
Barbenheimer Part 2 – Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is a film about consequences. It’s Christopher Nolan at his best, big budget filmmaking with gravitas. As always, with his trusted Director of Photography Hoyte van Hoytema, the film’s cinematography is something to behold. But its the dread and anxiety hanging over the whole film that is the highlight. The pace is flurrying, up to the Trinity Test, culminating in a stressful last 10 seconds before the bomb goes off.
And it is magnificent. Until you behold the shock and awe of this devastating technology. Then it becomes terrifying.
The last third of the film is allowed to breath, but it’s also the most important part. Because this is a film about consequences. And everyone has to deal with the fallout.
Robert Downey Jr steals the show as Lewis Strauss, showing that he can truly act outside of the restraints of the MCU. But a real highlight for me was Einstein, who has some real consequential scenes. Very fun to see some other faces in lesser roles: Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Olivia Thirlby, Josh Peck, and many more.
There’s no Director right now that’s doing what Nolan is doing, which is making a big budget film with real consequences. Not just big budget superhero films that feel like playing with toys in front of green screens. A filmmaker who plays with narrative structure and time, portrays a visual feast, and lets us experience it in the large screen ratio format of IMAX. And he succeeded in telling a story about dealing with the consequences of unleashing a technology we don’t fully understand that can and will change the world.
(Can’t unsee the scene where he first says “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”)