“What the Heck am I Doing Anyway?”
For those of you who might be here reading my not-as-frequent-as-I-would-like “Thoughts for Thursday” for the first time, let me take a minute to catch you up.
My name is Stephen Georgiou (Pronounced STEE VEN as God intended, not STEH FEN as the basketball player would have you believe), and I opened a local computer sales and service shop way back in 1996, called Computer Greeks.
Computers had only been invented a few months earlier, but I was a big fan right from the start.
I had intended to spend my days immersed in super fun video games and playing for a living, but instead found myself having to work a real job doing real grown-up things and spending far too much time having to figure out how to keep a business open that I was ill prepared to run.
I’ve never been known for making smart decisions.
The business grew. We got busy. People wanted us to fix stuff and sell things and answer hard questions and I spent a lot of time doing my best not to look confused and panicked.
I believe this is officially known as “Being an Adult”.
I don’t know about all y’all (a colloquial term frequently used in the South, and I am from the South Suburbs you know), but there ain’t much about me that’s adult-ish.
I’m pretty much the same irresponsible idiot I was at 16. I’m just more afraid of acting like it than I was all those (far too many) years ago.
Maybe that’s what being an adult is?
Over the years, you screw up so much and you see the consequences so often, that you become too terrified of messing up anymore and you stop doing the dumb stuff.
You still want to be lazy and careless and self-indulgent, but you don’t allow yourself to because you’re ultimately the one that must deal with the fallout.
When you’re younger, your parents are there for all the nonsense you create and usually bail you out, so you don’t have to worry about it. That’s what parents are for, right?
Well sadly, I opened Computer Greeks (located at 12222 S Harlem Ave in Palos Heights open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm- Closed Sundays) four short months after my dad passed away, so I had lost that safety net that had always been there for me.
If I had realized that having to fix your own mistakes was not much fun, I might have made distinctly different choices back then. Like running away and joining a Circus. That always sounded like fun.
Well, 27 years later, and I’m still the same dope I was when this started. I’ve just done it for so long, I make it look like I know what I’m doing. I don’t.
I think that’s the secret to being an adult. Faking it.
It’s just when you’ve done it so long, you get good at it.
I would love to see what someone who actually knew what they were doing could have accomplished all this time, but I guess you’re stuck with me.
The store is still there, and after 27 years, I guess that’s not nothing.
We’re still the best computer shop in the world. Again, a pretty nice accomplishment that has little to do with me and much more to do with the people who have been kind enough to work there all this time.
And like far too many small businesses, it’s still a challenge every month to keep going. I’ve never been able to figure out the secret to being successful, and no one wants to share it with me. I doubt I’d understand it if they did.
Anyway, all caught up? Great! I was worried I was going to slip into far too much self-pity there for a minute.
Back to my current TfT (Thoughts for Thursday for you noobs).
What the Heck am I Doing Anyway?
The answer is quite simple.
Like everyone else, I’m doing the best job that I can.
I still fake being an adult every day. I still do my best not to look confused and panicked. I still work hard to make sure I’m doing what I should and not falling into my lazy irresponsible phase if I can help it.
Like right now for instance. I could be playing one of several video games I have lined up to try out, but instead, I’m writing this pile of nonsense just for you.
You’ll have to decide if I made the right choice or not.
Until next time… Be Well and Stay Safe, Uncle Steve