Boy... I remember being very worried in high school about finding a job that paid well. That was so important since work was essentially the thing you did to fund the things you wanted to do. I bet a lot of the world operates this way... work hard, sacrifice, and trade these for the things you really want... A good retirement, the dream home, travel, a family, or whatever you wanted.
Well at 40 I feel I am qualified to say to this notion, "Get stuffed!" I have only now realized that life is going to be lived no matter what. Working hard for a lifetime only guarantees you'll be working hard for a lifetime. It never guarantees that you'll someday get to do what you wanted. While it still necessary to plan and have goals, one shouldn't immediately assume that the "right" thing to do is start a career making a lot of money as a means to enjoy the rest of your life.
Perhaps it was obvious to everyone else except for me. But we spend like a lot of time working... I have hard time drawing a line between my life and my work. Now I think maybe there never was a line! What I should have been doing is just enjoying myself and let life shape itself around me.
But now I'm hooked on my income like a junkie on crack. I couldn't change careers now even if I knew what to change to. I'm far too technical minded to leave technology behind and yet I'm not geeky enough to devour the immense details of a "related" field. Of course, I'm sure a lot of things look like more fun from my chair and somewhere I'm sure there is a starving video game producer wish he had a cherry stable job at the phone company. I am thankful that things have worked out so well for me. I certainly didn't try really hard to end up as a network design engineer. I just sorta did stuff other folks didn't seem to know how to do. A great deal of what I do is take other folks' great ideas and ask them why they don't just do it. It isn't a bad gig to be sure.
I do have a burning desire to someone how tell a kid (maybe even just one kid) how to pick a career and get them started off the right way. Ah, wisdom... How do you really pass it down?
You can only try. And you NEVER know whether they have listened or not. I think the best is to get a kid to do something. Anything to start. Whatever they try will tell them either they absolutely do not want to go that direction or it will start them in a direction they will like.
ReplyDeleteI really think they learn by watching what you do. That's becoming more and more obvious the older my daughter gets.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't seem too worried about it when we were watching Jem and the Holograms in Advanced Electronics class. :)
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