Polly Has Experience

I never thought experienced mattered worth a nickel until I got some. I mean, I'm smart. I know I'm smart. And I'm conscientious and hardworking.

Well, I used to be conscientious and hardworking.

Anyway.

I figured I was as capable as the next person because what I didn't know I could be taught. Quickly. So what difference did experience make, right? Not much.

I had half a point there, people. The other half I missed. But the part I had, well, I was right about the experience not mattering to my potential employer. I'd manage just fine. Better than fine. I'd be the best little worker bee in the hive.

The part I missed wasn't how experience would benefit my employer. I might have been young, arrogant, and overly confident, but that confidence wasn't misplaced. I could do whatever the job required, come hell or high water--as my Nana used to say. The part I missed was that I have no particular affinity for hell or high water.

If there's going to be hell or high water, people, I prefer to not know about it. I don't just mean watch it from a safe distance, I mean truly-ignorance-is-"let-them-eat-cake"-bliss. If my neck is going to be on the chopping block for it someday, well, fair enough. But why meet misery halfway?

In any case, experience is a handy thing for a person who hates surprises, likes to plan, and would really rather not have to wonder what is going to happen. Experience is the difference between a gasp and a sigh. If you haven't got it, you're going to spend a lot of time gasping.

Sigh.

Moving on. The thing is that now that I have experience, I can anticipate life and people and how those two things happen together with such ease that occasionally I appear clairvoyant. Only I'm not. Really. It's more like I remembered to wear my glasses to the train station and everyone else maybe forgot theirs at home. I'm just looking up at the big schedule and clock on the wall and matching the numbers to the trains, not conjuring spirits.

If only the trains never broke down. If only there were no operator errors. If only--if only a lot of things, people, because here's where experience breaks down for me: having the schedule is no guarantee. I can still end up stranded in East Nowhere, just like anybody else. In the meantime, someone who never even glanced at the schedule, just boarded a train completely at random, can find themselves transported to a free outdoor concert, hosted by their favorite performers, on a sunny summer day.

Not entirely likely, but not entirely impossible either.

And here's where experience picks up for me again, people: so long as a person has money, one can always just rent a car. One with GPS.

You know how I love GPS.

GPS is better than experience, it's guidance. Oh, now that I have experience, how I do covet me some guidance. I want to be guided, people. Lead by divine wisdom. Preferably not off the side of a mountain, but lead never-the-less.

Sheesh.

None of it is enough, people--not intelligence, not work ethic, not conscientiousness, not experience, not guidance. None of it is enough. None of it is a promise that everything happens in a way that makes sense, that everyone gets what they deserve, and all things begun are neatly and satisfyingly ended.

But it's a place to start,

Comments

[The Dol]

I don't mind certain surprises (like the endings of books or movies), but I tend toward being more comfortable when I know what's coming out in the real world.

For instance, when I think about going on a European vacation, I like it in theory, but the more I really think about it, the more it freaks me out. It would be great if I could watch a video detailing where to go, how to keep my money safe, how to not stick out like a sore thumb. It would be a series, actually, probably 12-16 hours of video. How to work the toilets, easily avoidable faux pas, etcetera.

And then I'd like to learn the languages. All of them. Then I could probably relax and enjoy it.

[Diosa]

Experience is great, but I'd give it all up to have my ninteen-year-old body back.

[Alice]

Dol - considering my recent European vacation I can say with all certainty that you need all of the above in your list and maybe more to really enjoy it. I love seeing other places, states, even. I'd much rather do it with a handy dandy native guide. Because when you don't know that sausage actually mean unground piggy parts in a casing, you're likely to not eat dinner and lucky not to throw up in a nice restaurant.

Polly, I do have to say that maybe because Im still (even though I really ought to know better) one of those young arrogant overly confident worker bee types (not to mention currently seeking employment) I like the idea of learning whatever I need just to have a job. I also still believe that if you want to know how something, anything works, the best way is to find a job doing it.

[Alice]

and please, don't mind my run on sentences and misplaces commas - writing well is something I have yet to gain much experience with.

[Polly]

The only way I'd visit Europe is if I happened to be married to an actual European. A very wealthy European. With a private plane and villas, whose on a first-name basis with all of the five star concierges between Tuscany and Singapore.

I really wouldn't go to Europe as a tourist, or even a regular human. I wouldn't even go to a Mexican resort as a tourist. Maybe not even Hawaii, what with it being so far from the mainland and all.

I mean, I used to think I wanted to see places for myself. Now I realize I'm perfectly happy getting all of my international culture from Epcot and movies. There's no way I'm going to risk getting stranded beyond driving distance from quality toilet paper and a Target.

[Diosa]

If I'm real honest with myself, I have to admit I don't travel well. But I still plan to go to Europe, Greece, Hawaii, Egypt and any number of other places. It does not need to be five star but I'm way beyond hostiles. I think I could handle three stars.

[Pandora]

I don't have experience really, but I'm sure I wouldn't mind some.

I would love guidance with love because I'm terrified of that surprise.

I have fantasies of backpacking europe with my best friend and no itinerary. There will be lots of coffee shops, foreign men, museums, pubs and discotheques. I won't wash my clothes for weeks and I'll just throw away my underwear along the way.

[Mattie]

Old and wise
Old and ignorant but happy
Old and wise but crabby
Old and Fat and Happy
Old in experience, young at heart, young in spirit, and the body of a 20 year old.

I know which one I would pick...

[Bookgirl]

I've been beating myself up for not being perfect. Until this weekend, I finally came to the conclusion that in perfection there are no discoveries and no surprises.And I REALLY like those things.

I love to travel. And as long as it doesn't involve actually sleeping on the ground or carrying all my belongings on my back, I can travel almost any way. I've gone to luxury spas and gone camping. Some of the most liberating experiences I've ever had have been walking around strange cities (and countries) by myself, figuring it out as I go along.

What I really want though, is a magic ball. I don't want to know the future step by step. But there are certain milestones along the way that I need to know I'll reach, or not reach. I don't think I need to be married to be happy, for example, but I'd pay serious money to know now whether or not that's in the cards for me someday, so I can stop wondering.

[The Model]

I may be the second youngest on the panel here (horray for Pandora, saving me for once from being the very youngest), but we're on the topic of travel now, and that is one area in which I think most would agree I have experience.

I have such fond memories of stumbling upon a little cafe in a new city a world away and sipping a cappuccino with my nose buried in a book, or just people watching. Figuring out the mass transit and making friends with locals and being shown the greatest non-touristy places to shop/eat/karaoke. Hearing about that little beach town on the Adriatic a short train ride away and going for a weekend of topless sunbathing and paninis made with the freshest ingredients around. Seriously. Given a map, a pocket dictionary, and maybe a little phrasebook, and I was up for anything.

But now that I'm a few years separated from my heavy travel days, I find myself more interested in returning to some of the exotic places I'm familiar with than discovering new ones. And even then, I have very little interest in going too far from convenience with the spawn in tow. Nor am I interested in being away from them long enough to really have those sort of adventures again, at least until they're much older. I really look forward to the days when I have grown-up kids and the means to travel in style.

Until then, I feel like my day-to-day life is adventure enough. The difference between Polly and myself may be that, in the metaphorical sense, I'm still mostly happy to ignore the big schedule and clock, jump on a train, and see where it takes me.