When Is It Enough or Too Much?
Are we required to work jobs we don't like? Even if we're 23 and our dreams haven't faded at all from when we were starry eyed in college? If I'm unhappy and stressed out but have nowhere to leap, do I jump anyway? And once I decide to make a change, is it laughable to pursue a pipe dream instead of taking the practical route and utilizing my skills and talents to find a practical job that "sucks less" than other jobs?
If I don't have a family to support, can't I just jump? Can't I just go for it? What's keeping me here, in this rut, that smells awful and is getting increasingly less comfortable?
Can we apply "tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" to our aspirations? Should I chase a fickle love and leave myself open to failure? Or should I bear a safety net and take something I'm good at, but always fawn for the one thing I never really strived for?
Can you tell I've already told myself what the answers to these questions are?
If I don't have a family to support, can't I just jump? Can't I just go for it? What's keeping me here, in this rut, that smells awful and is getting increasingly less comfortable?
Can we apply "tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" to our aspirations? Should I chase a fickle love and leave myself open to failure? Or should I bear a safety net and take something I'm good at, but always fawn for the one thing I never really strived for?
Can you tell I've already told myself what the answers to these questions are?
posted by Jess at 2:55 PM
2 Comments:
Looks like nobody wants to jump in on this one. Perhaps you hit a little too close to home for most of us? I can completely relate to your dilemma, anyway.
I want to tell you that you should go for it, but I won't be telling you that from experience. I also have no family to support - and no good reason not to jump, but I'm still perched here on the little mound of personal and financial security that I've accumluated since college. Throw all of this away for chasing a dream? That's crazy talk, isn't it? I don't know. It's probably crazier not to jump, to hang onto things I could so easily re-accumulate - but it's tough to rationalize something so seemingly illogical.
And no, I can't tell if you've already told yourself the answers to these questions - but then again I've often proved to be quite dense when it comes to interpreting the thoughts of others.
Perhaps the answer was obvious to me because I was writing from that point of view at the time. And of course when you're impassioned, you see things quite one-sidedly. And now, a short bit of time later, I still haven't "lept" nor made any progress toward the edge of my perch.
I can't say that entirely... I did look into another job within my company to replace the one I'm not happy with, but it would have been a cop out. It's not a jump to a lifestyle/job I want, it's just a jump to get off this anthill/snakepit they call sales.
I know that I've always lived for my passions. And no matter how safe I am right now, sans responsibility for others, etc., I remember that it's the number one most important thing for me to be happy. Not just stable, or "OK", but really happy. I'm 23! If I don't love my job... I don't have to stay there!
Thus begins the quest of fulfillment that should have started right out of college. But at least now I have a full time job plus a part time job to support my illogical dream search. Not to mention, I have something that everyone should have: A Go To Hell Fund. A little money saved up so that if I really have to leave my job because I'm unhappy or it challenges my ethics, I can just say "Go to Hell" and be safe for awhile.
Thanks for the input, Google.
Post a Comment
<< Home