Malik's FAQ

Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen.

~Benjamin Franklin

I want to ease some minds and answer some questions with this post.

First, my job. Everyone wants to know if I like my job. There is no short answer for this nor is there a definitive answer for this. But here is the current OFFICIAL answer for this. My job, is a job. There is a lot of potential for advancement should I decide to pursue it. BYU offers amazing benefits (5% matching 401(k), full tuition waiver for employee and spouse, pension, etc.) and so it is a good place for us to be right now. There are some challenges for me at BYU both personally and professionally and so I will most certainly grow as a person there. I intend to take a number of classes during my tenure at BYU. I'm hoping to learn Spanish and Navajo as well as taking a number of history, philosophy, and religion classes and maybe (just maybe) I'll make a return to the stage one summer.

So to make a long answer even longer. In the traditional sense of "do you like your job" I can't really say. It's been very slow these past weeks and I'm still learning the new system. The job itself certainly isn't going to stretch me (which may be a good thing) and I feel pretty confident in my ability to perform it. I do like it because for right now it offers me a "sanctuary" of sorts to regroup, refocus, and recommit to my dreams.

It has to be understood when I started culinary school I had a set of goals and a set of rules. The big rule that I broke (3 TIMES!) was not to get involved in any personal relationships beyond friendships. In the end this caused me to make decisions based on criteria other than those that I had set forth for myself when I started out. In order to find the things I want(ed) from a culinary job/career I needed to have moved to a food city – Seattle, Portland, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, D.C., Minneapolis, etc – I chose not to. I hoped I could find what I was looking for elsewhere. (Colorado Springs was actually very close) I never found it. I even tried to create it myself a couple times and was not able to .

I do not regret any of the decisions I have made in the last 17 years. Not one. I have learned so very much. I’ve been given four of the most amazing kids and I have a wife who has a strength greater than she knows and I often doubt that any other potential spouse would have been able (or willing) to live this life with me.

One big thing that I have learned is that sometimes the path of least resistance often has just as many negative consequences than the road less traveled and so I’d rather take my chances on the unknown whenever it seems a suitable choice. I have too often seen others make the easy choice and in the end abandon their dreams. I don’t want that for me and I don’t want that for my children. I hope that regardless of whether I land at the top of the heap or at the bottom my children will see that not only did I always tell them to pursue their dreams but that I always did myself. To paraphrase a scripture, be not just a teller of the word but a doer also.

I recall reading a story written by John Burroughs, the famous American naturalist, containing a most touching experience. As I remember, the details went like this:

His brother was rather timid, somewhat below the average in those powers and qualities that insure worldly success. He was the kind of man that is “so often crowded to the wall.”This brother had his plans for going west. Somehow that land of the West would be different. There he might leave the causes of his failure behind. He kept his suitcase packed continuously, ready to go at a moment’s notice—whenever he really firmly made up his mind to go. John Burroughs told how once he actually started and got as far as White Pigeon, Michigan. There his courage gave out and he came back. Still he kept his suitcase packed, but the end of his life’s journey came before he was ready to go west again.

It was not really the West on the map that he was longing to visit. What he longed for was the dream of a far greater freedom. The dusty suitcase he left behind him was evidence of what had consoled him through the years of his long defeat. It meant for him that his dream was waiting to become a reality somewhere. At any moment he could break away and find what he had never found before.

Let’s not stop in White Pigeon, Michigan. Let’s not let the end of our lives—or even the end of this year—find us with our suitcase packed but unused. Have a dream—a righteous dream. Aspire to all of the powers and progress worthy of the child of our Heavenly Father that you are. And make those dreams come true! (Franklin D. Richards, “Have a Dream,” New Era, Jan 1978,4)

Okay enough about my job/career/dreams.


About Housing

The other question (and all its variations) we keep getting (from everyone!) Is what are we doing about our home in Logan and why and when and how and…you get the picture.

Okay here is the long and short of our decision on our housing situation.

We are going to hold on to the townhouse and rent it to Melissa’s brother Sterling and his good wife Jennifer. This is all conditional on them selling their house in Brigham City and on the upcoming birth of their little Abby. (or Abe if Abby puts a stem on the apple) This decision is a win/win/win. First off it will allow Sterling and Jennifer to move to Logan so that Sterling can finish his schooling at USU before the second coming. In a way it is an opportunity for us to help someone with resources that we posses.

Win number two with Melissa in the hospital and me in Provo we were pretty strapped trying to get packed and take care of the house and everything else needed to get it ready to sell. This decision allowed us sometime to do immediate needs and longer time to do long term projects that we’ve never gotten to.

Finally, win number three: Economics. Some of you might have noticed the U.S. economy is struggling just a bit right now. Real Estate is a buyers market and we’re not buying. My estimation is that if we sold our house today after all was said and done best case scenario is that we would walk away with $10k in the bank. This obviously is tempting when you don’t have a lot of money in the bank but ultimately this is a bad decision (IMHO). If we had the $10k profit in the bank one of a two things would happen (1) we would spend a bunch of in on something and leave the rest of it in the bank savings where it would gradually disappear with no trace of how, where, what, etc. (2) I would most likely, though, but it in a CD where it would sit for two or three years amassing a whopping 4.21% APY and we would make about 1000 dollars. BUT if we keep the house put $2500 into it now another $2500 into it after the first of the year and then maybe another $2500 – 5000 into it the following year. We could turn around and sell it and walk away with (in my estimation) $35k+ in the same time frame. So it was sell the house and make $1k in three years or keep the house and make $25k+ in three years. “I’ll take no-brainer for $1000 please Alex” Also keep in mind because of the bankruptcy of my restaurant (that just went through a year ago) we could not have used the $10k as a down-payment on a house in Provo because I have no credit and Melissa’s job as a homemaker doesn’t pay enough.

So there you have it. Those are the answers to the two most frequently asked questions in my life currently. There is one more but I should probably hold off addressing the whole BYU culture shock thing until I’ve been there awhile. Maybe at the end of Fall term!