Picking a
career in your twenties sucks.
I’d just
like to get that out of the way, so we can all acknowledge and agree on
it. Nowadays, the twenties are
often agreed upon as the most stressful time in a person’s life. This is because it is the time where
you are supposed to set yourself on the course of your life, and steer your
career, and personal life forward, while balancing the insanities of being in
the most transitional period of your life.
I’ll admit
right now that I’m very fortunate, because I am one of the few people who is
sure of what they want to do, career-wise. Probably.
Anyway, operating under the assumption that I have at least some idea of
what I’m doing, I’d like to share the realization that made me more confident
to pursue my work.
My job is
not everything I am going to do. I
work as a scenic and production designer for theatre, events, and entertainment,
and I have a passionate and all consuming love of that work that means I spend
more hours than a sane person should working on it. Yet I recognize there is more than that to me.
In terms
of my personal life, I love having friends in other fields because I’m a firm
believer in leading a balanced life.
Build connections to as many different things in this world as you can,
through people and other means. Be
as connected as you can, and you will find clarity that comes with a wider
perspective. If you only work,
talk about that work, and see those you work with, I would wager good money
that you are not as happy as you could be.
More
importantly, however, I want to discuss how to reconcile your ability to love
and care about your work, and not be consumed or changed by it.
I think I
can safely assume that everyone reading this either has, or is, a person who
seems to change careers so often and drastically that it seems that switching
careers is in fact…their career.
That is totally okay.
That’s more than okay-that’s admirable and normal.
There is a
difference, in my opinion, between those who try everything to find what they
care about, and those who keep changing what they care about and keep changing
themselves to keep up. A person
does not need to lose their identity to fit into a career, but should instead
find a career that fits your identity.
I am a
designer for events and entertainment.
That is the job that fits who I am, and makes me happy. However, I also care deeply about the
state of the world abroad. This
does not mean that I am going to become a relief worker, because I know that I
do not have the strength to make facing that much heartbreak the central part
of my life. It does, however, mean
that I am going to use my income to establish new efforts to help out how I can
in the future. This is one small
example of what I mean.
My
favorite word, since I began writing this blog, and really examining my life
and career thus far is “unlimited.”
Be unlimited in what you do.
Break the boundaries of every element of your life. Be bigger than expectations. Be yourself, and exist outside
definition.
Live your
life, without limits.
