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Ever since starting my job I’ve become a lot more peeved at certain things, people, actions etc.

I don’t know whether it’s because there is a lot of pressure on me to do my job right, or whether I’m not seeing my friends as much as I’d like to, or whether I’m just unhappy in my job… I just don’t know.

First off, pressure. This month’s campaign is a huge one. December is the busiest time for gyms and I happen to work for a national gym chain. The second largest in the country.

This month we’re all about slamming the competitors and saying what’s bad about them in our campaigns. We’ve had a video created by our digital agency and it’s great – it’s funny, and it shows us, as a company, in a very good light. And me?

Well, I’m the digital marketing executive. I am responsible for making it go “viral” as my director says. He wants me to get it 15,000 views in one month on YouTube alone. That might seem like a hell of a lot, it might seem very little, I don’t know. But bear in mind that we’ve never tried this tactic before. It’s completely new to the company.

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I’ve been thinking, while spending a great deal of time in the Market parts, since the weather has taken what seems to be a prolonged turn for the Good-Better-Best, about how I’ve been generally conditioned for social settings, social interactions, by my upbringing the Suburbs. Don’t get surprised if also modern-day Gender Statistics will be influenced by recent demographic developments.

To me, the Suburbs represent a growing trend not just in terms of physical expansion, but of a strangely hyper-civilized and “Western”, though I promise to stick away from that capitalization from here-on-in yet animalistic Mode Of Rearing.

They seem to me to exist as Reefs, where parents retreat in their mid-twenties to raise children and go through a secondary coming-of-age process following their adolescence.

Interestingly, this mass retreat (and I’m referring here to the first or second generations of real retreaters into the Suburbs) has a secondary effect which I perceive to be quite detrimental.

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This Is Who I Am
Imagine an amiable, energetic young man who is helpful and sensitive to the feelings of others.  He’s eager to learn, does well at school and is proud of his accomplishments.  “Cops” is his favorite TV program and he’s a purist when it comes to rock & roll music.  He enjoys a variety of activities and is especially fond of the great outdoors.  Most remarkably, he welcomes each new day as if it were the beginning of a great adventure.

Now that you’ve had a chance to form a mental image of this young man, would it change if I were to also tell you he has Down Syndrome?  Does having a disability somehow lessen those qualities one may possess?

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