Growing Up: What we leave behind

I have been thinking a lot about the future lately, the future that might be, and the future that could have been. For me the future includes pictures of family and friends, but also my career. I feel like also to many, the future includes a heavy emphasis on a job or "career" as the cornerstone to their desires and hopes (I mean going to college means you get the job of your dreams right?). It is interesting how that despite how incredibly vocationally focused our culture is (people are known for their jobs rather than who they are as people), we spend so little time thinking about the importance of selecting it. I tend to wonder about the dreams we had as kids and what happened to them? At what we imagined we could be before we were taught that dreams are foolish and told we are limited to our perceived skills rather than our potential.
Growing up I wanted to be a fireman, a marine biologist, and my personal favorite an egyptologist (all before the age of 10 no less). I also always wanted to be a toy-r-us kid forever. But what did you want to be when you grew up? Now what do you want to be now? (I ended up becoming a counselor so go figure). However, is the better question here what do you wish you could do now? Is there a difference or incongruency still between the two? Certainly. But all too often I feel that people get "stuck" in a career and end up looking back and wishing things were in a different place as if the pieces in the puzzle got put in the wrong order. This does not necessarily mean people can't happenstance into a job they would have never wanted for themselves and end up loving it despite its lack of initial appeal because that happens and can be a great blessing. However, at what point does having a more "realistic" trajectory become more important than doing something your heart loves (this is always the conflict in plotlines involving parents and their art major college students). I've heard too many students who take a major career path because of the perceived outcome later (high paying job) and have no heart in what they do beyond the paycheck or the ease in getting a job. (Can you blame them though? America(ns) loves their money and prestige).  But I feel like more and more there are those walking around that look back and think of the job they really would have loved to do, but didn't because it wasn't practical or not high paying enough... (this is not to say the economy always works the way you would like it to when you make leap of faith in a career-path, which makes job selections incredibly complicated at times, but sometimes...it isn't). I agree that money is important, but it is only a means to an end and not an end itself. So while you shouldn't turn down a job or go after a career that has a high payday, that shouldn't be the lone driving force either. If you could have any job in the world, regardless of pay, location, or education, what would it be? Is it a high paying job?

"When you grow up, your heart dies" says the sad and unhopeful voice of allie sheedy in the breakfast club. This has been a phrase that has replayed in my head as I have grown up and even now. I thought for so long this was true, and inevitable, you get older and the things you thought were important when you younger disappear and are considered unimportant. I think in a lot of ways this is true for many, you graduate college or find a job, and you no longer have the time or brainspace for thinking about "childish" things, life tends to make sure of that. That makes me sad to think about. In the end I think sorting out a career or a job can really be benefited with a little imagination and creativity that our hearts used to contain, which is ironic given those ideals are the first thing that goes out the window in the "real" world. I remember being anxious for months before graduating high school in figuring out the trajectory of my WHOLE life (being dramatic is part of being a teenager right?). I felt capable in taking multiple career paths, but couldn't decide which one was "me", not which one would make me the richest or which one would be the easiest to swallow, but which one would make the me inside happy (that's the real trick isn't it though?). I ended up deciding on one that I could not just live with, but that would fulfill me, and continue to challenge me with the skills I had and since then I haven't looked back or regretted a single moment (God really blessed me here, and these results are not guaranteed, selecting a career is a process).

The job you may love may not be the job that comes to mind first or second, or fiftith and the skills you have may not be immediately applicable to a job you are aware of, but I think looking inside at the kid you left behind year ago might serve you well in that quest, after all the world could use a little more childish fearlessness and hope and not just in the area of vocation, but all across the board in our lives.