Saturday, November 24, 2007

How do we know what we want?

Reading the comments from the "Am I Pawn Shop Material" posts, I thougt I'd put out a question. When did you you figure out what you wanted to spend your life doing?

I haven't figured it out yet, but many of my readers have...some early, some late. I'd like to hear how you came to know your calling.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

At night in bed when I'm being honest with myself, I am gripped with fear that I haven't truly figured out my calling yet, either. What I've decided to do until I do is work whatever job causes me the least amount of interference with my "real" life and choose not to let my career be a defining aspect of who I am.

That's my path, but it doesn't mean that I have less respect for folks who go into careers like medicine, law, education, etc. and have the "career defining your life" experience. I just haven't found my niche yet, I suppose. Sometimes it would be nice to be able to respond confidently when people ask "What do you do?" with "I'm a Lawyer, Doctor, Teacher" or whatever, instead of the mishmash of things that I do now. "I'm an IT Technician at a University, but really I'm a semi-professional blogger and podcaster, and I also enjoy taking pictures and talking about beer, but what I really want to do is direct."

Honestly, I think my calling will wind up being to save money like a madman until I can afford to "turn on, tune in, drop out," buy an Airstream and a truck and supplement my retirement by playing poker and writing the occasional article for travel magazines.

Steve said...

Pete, it sounds like we are soul brothers. I think there's some kind of writing in my future and some kind of teaching. My problem is that I know I'd like to teach, but I'm interested in everything and don't want to limit myself to a specific field. I have a BS in Engineering and an MS in IT, but I'm finding that I'm far more interested in history and politics.

Oh, well. Since I have an MS, I can put a toe in the water at TCC or UTA and see if it's all that it is cracked up to be.

It sounds pretencious (sp?), but being a mile wide and an inch deep ain't all it's cracked up to be. I'll just bide my time till the folks from Jeopardy call.

Pete said...

I think you're right, and if I didn't already have too many Steves in my life (two is enough!), I'd invite you in. :) Just kidding... You should come out to one of our get-together! We're all going up to the Scat Jazz Lounge for opening night tonight at 8, if you're not doing anything.

I know exactly what you're saying about miles and inches. My grandpappy was the same way. Could do just about anything, but never did any one thing for long enough for it to get boring. That's part of why I'm finishing up my degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. I'm too damn old to be following some lock-step degree plan in order to get an entry-level job somewhere. I'll make do with my wits and this pointy stick, thanks very much.