Forever Jobs
In high school you're told you're "too young to fall in love" because "you don't know what you want" and shouldn't be making decisions that effect the rest of your life when you're so young, fragile and naive. In high school they also make you decide what you want to do as a profession for the rest of your life. Don't these two things seem a little LOT contradictory?
Now, the argument I'm going to be making isn't about young love in high school. It's going to be about your career.
How can we go our entire high school careers being told we're too young to know what love is and too young to make any "real" decisions yet we're forced to choose what we want to be doing for the rest of our lives? How can someone who doesn't really know what they want out of life pick their "forever job"?
At least when you're in high school and you're dating someone where things don't seem to be working out, you can dump them and move on whereas when we're forced to pick a career, it's harder to back out once you're already in. There are so many people I have talked to that are in school or have graduated for what they thought they wanted to do forever who aren't happy, who don't want to be doing that field of work or profession anymore. What you wanted to do in high school isn't what you want out of life anymore. So, do you go back to school and major in something different for another 4+ years? Or do you try to find a job in the field you went to school for and hope things work out in the end? Do you just live with your dead-end job? Make it work? And, of course, don't get me wrong, "you're never too old to go back to school" but money sure does play a huge roll in all of this. Graduating school almost always means student debt. So now you've graduated from school in a field you no longer want to work in with an enormous student debt that you cannot pay. What does one do?
Perhaps I have all of these thoughts because I want to know myself, how do you stay happy? How do you go to your job, day in and day out, enjoying every minute of it? (Enjoying every minute of it might be a little ambitious as there is always work people don't enjoy doing even if they do love their jobs.) I always find if I do something long enough, I end up hating it. So even if I were doing the job I loved and wanted to do, how do I continue to love it for the rest of my life? I'm almost afraid of doing what I love because I'm worried I'll end up hating it... And then what? Where does one go from there?
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Now, the argument I'm going to be making isn't about young love in high school. It's going to be about your career.
How can we go our entire high school careers being told we're too young to know what love is and too young to make any "real" decisions yet we're forced to choose what we want to be doing for the rest of our lives? How can someone who doesn't really know what they want out of life pick their "forever job"?
At least when you're in high school and you're dating someone where things don't seem to be working out, you can dump them and move on whereas when we're forced to pick a career, it's harder to back out once you're already in. There are so many people I have talked to that are in school or have graduated for what they thought they wanted to do forever who aren't happy, who don't want to be doing that field of work or profession anymore. What you wanted to do in high school isn't what you want out of life anymore. So, do you go back to school and major in something different for another 4+ years? Or do you try to find a job in the field you went to school for and hope things work out in the end? Do you just live with your dead-end job? Make it work? And, of course, don't get me wrong, "you're never too old to go back to school" but money sure does play a huge roll in all of this. Graduating school almost always means student debt. So now you've graduated from school in a field you no longer want to work in with an enormous student debt that you cannot pay. What does one do?
Perhaps I have all of these thoughts because I want to know myself, how do you stay happy? How do you go to your job, day in and day out, enjoying every minute of it? (Enjoying every minute of it might be a little ambitious as there is always work people don't enjoy doing even if they do love their jobs.) I always find if I do something long enough, I end up hating it. So even if I were doing the job I loved and wanted to do, how do I continue to love it for the rest of my life? I'm almost afraid of doing what I love because I'm worried I'll end up hating it... And then what? Where does one go from there?
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I completely agree with you. I'm at the point in my life where I'm asking these same difficult questions and no one seems to have any comforting answers.
ReplyDeleteIt's a strange time in our lives I think... Everyone goes through this... right?? Haha. xo
DeleteIt's hard to say since I only have five more years of life than you, but I'd say I've seen it either go one of two ways so far...
ReplyDelete1. You flail around not knowing where you're going, get distracted from your 'dream career' for a few years while you work a job that pays the bills, and then (when you build up a really good rage towards your non-dream career) end up falling into a job that you originally wanted.
2. You work a shitty unrelated job for a few years, hate it, and turn to entrepreneurship in order to start doing the stuff you originally loved, slowly building up a job you create for yourself, until you can one day quit and raise your middle finger to 'the man'.
3. Option three is you give up, get comfortable, and buy food and useless items to fill the void. But you don't get to claim this option until you've reached middle age, so I wouldn't worry too much.
Well this is extremely comforting :) I think I'm just at a weird point in my life where things aren't supposed to be completely aligned yet! Thank you for some reassurance! Haha :) xo
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