I got an email this morning from a mentor who said she heard I was having a hard time finding the right job. Interesting. This raises two questions: a) who's talking about my job search, and b) is it fair to say I can't find the "right" job, when technically I haven't started looking for any job?
Jobs. Oh, jobs. It took me many months to free myself from the competitive judgmental grasp that was graduate school. The pressure to find the most amazing journalism job in all the land was enough to stifle me into not looking for work at all. So I freelanced. And then I traveled. And how I am back - with hopefully a somewhat clearer mind to determine what it is I want to do for a living and a renewed motivation to dive head-first into the hunt.
The "for a living" part here is key. I think so many people forget that jobs are just that - work. What you do each day to earn a paycheck and contribute to society does not define you as a person. It might sound basic, but I think people tend to overlook that, giving too much weight to occupation and not enough to hobbies, friends, interests....
That said, I fear that it has been so long since I got up in the morning to go to an office, that entering the workforce again is going to be a struggle. I mean, if I work all day, how am I ever going to find the time to listen to Latin music and look at the pictures from our trip for hours on end (which is just what I have been doing for the past three days)? My friend says we should allow ourselves this time to reminisce about the trip, rehashing stories and pine for the tropical adventures. I hope she's right, because right now we can't seem to get enough. No, she doesn't have a job either, which might also contribute to the current state of affairs.
I came home this weekend to surprise my father for his 60th birthday. My step-mother arranged it, and after a week of trying to coordinate the surprise, we have decidedly determined she would be a terrible covert CIA agent. Her whispers into the phone with my dad in the next room and her plans to call my cell phone, let it ring once and hang up to signal they are ready for my grand entrance just didn't come across smoothly. Perhaps the biggest mistake was her asking my dad to lunch on Saturday. She never wants to go out to lunch, much less pay for it, on a weekend day when there is yard work to be done and no doubt days-old leftovers that can be resuscitated into an acceptable meal. My pops was a little suspicious, but when we walked into the BBQ restaurant (that's right, this is the South, after all), the look on his face was priceless.
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3 comments:
Awesomely insightful post here, lady. But lemme see your point and raise you this: I whole-heartedly agree that your job does not define who you are. But...I'd say it's important to spend 40/50+ hours a week doing something you're passionate about, which is why I suspect many of us dropped that chunk of change for grad school. I don't think my nerdy love of journalism is all that I am - let's not forget the sarcastic, fun-loving parts :) But, well, it is part of me. Does that make any sense?...
Agreed. It's true. I also think it's important to feel passionate about what you do for a living (which, as you point out, is why I have chosen to be in debt for the rest of my life courtesy a grad degree). I guess I just felt the need to remember it's not all there is.
Ladies - I've decided to let travelling aimlessly and drinking beer 40-50 hours a week define who I am.
That will be my main purpose in life and maybe I'll "work" just enough to get by...
Remind me I said this in three months when I'm pulling 60 hours a week someplace awful bc I'm broke
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