Whether over lunch, the phone or just g-chat, catching up with old friends these days inevitably turns into a discussion of how the hell to carve out a meaningful and satisfying professional life. We're all just a few stints into the career game that we'll keep playing until we're 65 (or much older, considering how social security doesn't look likely to pan out for us these days). But even with so little time elapsed since college graduation, it seems like my friends and I have all flip-flopped at least once between idealistic visions of healing the world and feeding ourselves solely on our passion for our work, versus the simpler, perhaps more jaded aim of making a good buck to maintain the Starbucks habit and live in trendy lofts.I think that there are only very few freaks with an intense driving passion that directs their career path and makes choices along the way easy. And yet all of my overachiever friends and I feel like we should be one of these (lucky!) freaks on a straight fast track to exactly where we want to go. But it takes work to even bring the ultimate destination into view, let alone focus. And it's hard to remember to value the process of trying out multiple experiences and learning, especially about oneself, from each.
The only way to keep it fun along the way is to continue making time for friends and such excellent events as Sausagefest.
6 comments:
Suz! You know I agree, girlfriend. But though I finally make enough to support the Starbucks habit, I don't know anyone who lives in a trendy loft. :( Stupid Massachusetts living expenses! How about non-trendy Somerville tenements?
suzzer, just found your blog--i have one too! mrunsforfun.blogspot.com.
i hope you are well,
xox
molly
Suz, your link to "Sausagefest" (whatever it was) is now, sadly, dead, so I'm just going to assume you were talking about one of your and Sare's parties in which you two were pretty much the only women in the whole building.
Few are fortunate enough to have a daily budget for Starbucks and a trendy loft. Fewer are fortunate enough to have passion in their lives. And fewer still are fortunate enough to be passionate about their livelihood. Most people aren't like you or me; most people would be content to be able to find a spouse, have children, and provide more for their children than their parents provided them. And in America, that upper-middle-class dream for your children usually means a daily budget for Starbucks and a trendy loft.
btw, how are you? I was in Phoenix for work a couple weeks ago, but only for a day. I'm in Boulder, CO this week.
best,
Damien
P.S. -- I'm drinking Starbucks right now, but it was on the corporate expense card. I also live in the projects next to Japantown, San Francisco.
Actually, Damien, the reason I wrote this post in the first place is because the "upper-middle-class dream" sounds pretty good to me lately. I know that as Brown graduates, we're supposed to have visions of grandeur and changing the world, but I don't disdain those who just want to raise a happy family and enjoy the little things. In fact, it just might be that I am such a person.
I didn't mean to imply that I disdain people like that. In a way, I very much envy that world view. I think sometimes, my ambitions predispose me to disappoint myself. Although someday, I look forward to having a loving family to share those achievements / disappointments. I just hope my hypothetical family isn't too seduced by the comfort of a large Starbucks budget.
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