Life and the Mottos that Come From it.

2025/06/03

New Friends and New Opportunities 

    Directly after graduating from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, I was fortunate enough to find work as a search engine marketing specialist at a large media planning and buying agency in California. I had no experience for the role at the time, but I did have a bachelor's degree in marketing and a can-do attitude. The role required constant research, practice, and patience. After a few months of trial and error, I became a savant. All of my clients experienced increased performance at lower spend due to my campaign strategizing, ad planning, copywriting, and advertising.  

    However, as I previously mentioned, I did not have prior experience for this role at the time. Thankfully, I had absolutely wonderful and ingenious coworkers who did not mind me asking the same questions over and over again and who taught me the ins and outs of the industry. We had a hybrid work schedule, which had us all outside of the office three days a week and allowed us to hire people from around the United States and across the world. Because of this, I was able to connect with people from varying cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences that I would not have known without the compassionate world of digital marketing. Just after a year of working at this company, I was thankful to receive another offer that both paid significantly more and allowed for more creative control of marketing campaigns and strategies. It was an opportunity that I could not let pass me by, so I happily accepted the role. Sadly, this meant leaving my coworkers who had been there for me when I first started my career and who had taught me so much. 

    During my last week at this company, my coworkers and I stepped out of the office to grab lunch and talk. We discussed my next role and how excited they were for me, what they planned for themselves in the future, and how we would stay in touch. They knew about a little black pocket journal that I brought with me everywhere I went, as they saw me constantly writing their advice or making notes and laughing to myself, and they asked to write something in there for me to discover at a later date. How could I say no? 

Different Lives Lead to Different Mottos

    After a few months in my next role, I had completely forgotten about this wholesome interaction between friends. I was going over my to-do list for the day, and turned the page of my journal and found what they had written. I immediately flashed back to that lunch and to the conversations that we had. The last of which was about our life mottos. 

    My life motto is simple but incredibly important to me. It's what my father would say to me whenever he dropped me off at a social or school event throughout middle, high school, and even as I started college. He would say goodbye, that he loved me, and to remember, "don't be a dick". Eloquent as it may sound, I find it to be a reminder that we have a moral obligation to treat people as you want to be treated. Simply put, nobody is cool when they are mean, so when push comes to shove, or whenever the opportunity to be one arises, my father's words would ring loudly in my head. Don't be a dick. 

    One of my coworkers, a small and soft-spoken woman with a heart of gold, wrote her life motto, which was also a simple reminder. In her neatly written and small handwriting, it said, "Enjoy the moment". I reminisced about how, even though she never sought to be the center of attention, often choosing to sit a little farther behind everyone else than she had to, she never missed an opportunity to interact socially and to engage with others. She was proud of her hobbies, passions, and friends, and she didn't need to justify herself in the eyes of others because she simply enjoyed each moment as it came. Seeing her handwriting and her life motto was an uplifting message that I needed that day, as the stress of the new job and life had been compounding within me. Sometimes its good to remember not to be a dick, but it is always important to enjoy the moment. 

    My other coworker had been through many hardships in a very short amount of time. Moving to the United States through a work visa he obtained from our company, he and his wife were  Ukrainian refugees who had moved throughout Europe for a year before moving to the United States due to the war with Russia. A war that is still raging today, three years later. He was a man of immoveable character, constant curiosity, and genuine care for those around him, so when I read his life motto, I was a bit taken aback. He wrote, "Survive or die". Growing up in a middle-class household in California, I had never seen life through this sort of lens, and it broke my heart a bit to see that was how he saw life. I realized just how lucky I have been, just how strong he had been, and how stupid and/or annoying my complaints about my life must have sounded to him. Yet he always spoke with earnestness and compassion, and not once did he complain about his past. He was a survivor. 

    We all have some phrases or mottos that we immediately think of when asked what our life motto may be. For some, it comes from poets, philosophers, fictional characters, historic figures, parents, friends, or some combination of all of the above. I believe that someone's life motto can tell you a lot about who they are, what they are like, and where they have been without the need for a life story or examples. I find myself reminiscing on my coworkers now as I write this. About who they are, what they have been through, and what they may be up to now. I am so glad that they asked me what my life motto was and that they shared theirs.  So tell me, what's your motto?