I had always considered myself relatively well-rounded and tried to dabble in different fields of study, hobbies, what have you. When the time came to choose a major, all my interests made it that much more difficult. Now I’m in sitting in my cubicle, at my first job out of college, pondering my future. It occurs to me that I still haven’t figured out what my “career” will be, or for that matter, what I want it to be.
As I toss the word “career” around in my head, it begins to sound strange and foreign. It is after all just a word. So I wonder, what does it mean to have a career? Is this really my goal in life? Or is this word just that, a word? One that we use to feel like we’ve achieved something important and can now move on with the rest of our bucket list.
The recession may have done me a favor. Layoffs left and right have forced some people to learn a new skill or to branch out into other fields and take on numerous “careers”. Many are no longer bound to nine-to-fives because their nine-to-fives no longer exist. Temping, freelancing, and volunteering have taken the place of many lost jobs, and I’m excited to say that people may be reluctant to return to the not-so-reliable nine-to-five. Perhaps this is the kind of “career” I’ve always been looking for, but didn’t know existed; the multi-career.
One thing I know for sure is that separating work and life is no easy feat. With the way things are going for me personally and for the country as a whole, we may not all have the luxury of boasting one solid job and enjoying the fruits of our labor on the weekends. Perhaps it’s time to let the two fuse together into a lifestyle that allows us to pour ourselves into our work and allowing for a seamless transition between the two. Of course I say this now. Next year I may want to grunt through the work day and never think of it again after 5 o’clock. I don’t know.
