What is it about digging in dirt that is so intoxicating. At times, I wish I’d discovered this hobby earlier in life and perhaps I’d have gotten a degree in landscape design or horticulture. Of course, one co-worker I knew at a Kansas City software firm with a horticulture degree was doing technical writing because he couldn’t pay the bills as a horticulturalist with just a bachelor’s degree. Funny with both ended up doing the same job despite our very different educational fields of emphasis.
Maybe a person doesn’t just have one career in their life anyway. Many people change jobs and job areas of expertise along the way. Even doctors and lawyers specialize between administration, hands-on work, and consulting. Early on, you work to prove yourself professionally and financially, but at some point, your goals change to fulfilling other needs. You shift from getting your foot in the door to meaningful and inspiring. But, does the American Dream work against us when we become so entrenched with mortgages, car payments, and such to the point we feel trapped by our chosen lifestyle? Those who change careers by choice or through downsizing are often seen as unfortunate even though many would report being happier and more satisfied in the long term.
Doing meaningful work is critical to me in a very fundamental way. Having a soulful outlet to explore my ideas is invigorating whether I do it in the garden or a journal. Journaling is freeing as you can write whatever you like without limits while gardening is freeing in a different way because the plants don’t care when or how I care for them so long as I am there. When I consider the most satisfying jobs I’ve had, those that allowed me autonomy were the most satisfying, motivating, and productive. Jobs that required or used rigid methods and management styles felt suffocating, leaving me constantly wanting to escape the stifling and claustrophobic conditions.
As I consider the most challenging jobs I’ve encountered, I know that appreciating the motivations of others is critical to any task. Asking, “What is this person thinking here?” gets you into a mediation mentality to begin aligning their needs with your own. Also asking, “How important is this particular item/issue in the big picture?” is key to determining the amount of effort you should spend working to resolve your differences. The ironic thing is these strategies are useful for all types of personal relationships and not just at the office. I wonder why this knowledge was new to me and seemed inherent among my co-workers. How does one acquire certain work habits and tendencies, anyway? Are we born to work a certain way, or do we learn certain techniques that stick with us throughout our lives?
I wonder why I didn’t talk to my parents about career and life choices more. To some degree, I was looking to lead a different type of life and didn't want them judging my plans. Their traditional views on the role of women were the biggest difference between in how I wanted to live my life. To some degree, I know they wanted more for me even if they didn’t know exactly what more would mean for me personally. At any rate, I did become the first person on either side of my family to graduation from college and in doing so, broke from the blue-collar traditions that had governed my ancestry thus far.
My only real issue with higher education is that I believe colleges should do more to help students identify and plan their career goals and not just ensure they meet the requirements to get a given degree. You might like computer science, but being a software engineer may not be for you if you can't sit at a desk all day. Maybe teachers and doctors shouldn’t be the only ones who have to complete internships or residencies to graduate. Internships for all types of jobs would be a big indicator for students embarking on a career. I doubt colleges will change their ways, but it seems cruel to just give students a little bit of everything from the education buffet and expect them to go figure out how to make a career out of it.
We send our children to college thinking it will help them figure out what type of life they want, but is education alone enough. I wish I’d had someone to help me understand all the things floating through my head in college and somehow make some possible career ideas out of those thoughts. Then I wonder if it’s my job to do that for my kids? After all, I guess parents are the ones ultimately responsible for guiding their children into adulthood and beyond. Does asking these questions mean I know how my parents felt as they sent me to college? I guess I have unique insight having experienced a blue-collar upbringing and then working myself into the white-collar sect, so the benefits and drawbacks of each are quite familiar. The only real crossroads is choosing the path(s) that excite you and learning to make new dreams as you fulfill old ones along your journey.
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