"I got a bullshit traffic ticket. I went to court, I got the cop on the stand, & I argued with him until he admitted he was wrong."

Why Vinny became a lawyer.

When I was younger, Memaw worked for a little while in an office. She liked the work, but it wasn’t her passion. She worked long enough to get enough credits for social security, so when she retired, she could collect it. What she loved to do most was be at home. She loved to cook and clean and wash and take care of her family. That was something that she really enjoyed. Her husband, my grandpa, loved his work. He actually was in the Air Force for many years, including World War II.  When his service was up, he worked for the Air Force as a civilian. On weekdays, he would go to the base in Battle Creek, Michigan and was foreman of maintenance. He loved fixing things and was very talented.  He knew how to fix almost everything. He loved that he still worked for the Air Force and he really was happy that he got to help out at the base. He finally retired because of his health and died a few months after retirement.

I always wanted to be a teacher. I don’t know why because we didn’t have any teachers in the family, but it was something that I thought that I would be good at. When I was young, I had told my Memaw about wanting to be a teacher, so she bought me a huge two sided blackboard and tons of chalk--white chalk, colored chalk, and erasers. I would spend hours in front of the blackboard writing lessons, taking attendance, and doing just fun things that I thought teachers did.

I always thought teaching was my passion and I did enjoy it for many many years. I taught from four-year-old preschool all the way through 18-year-old 12th grade. One grade I did not teach was first grade. Other than that I had taught all the ages, all the grades for 35 years. Overall, I still loved teaching until I retired. But I did retire early, at the age of 57, because of other things outside of the classroom such as politics, administration, etc. After retirement, I still tutored with the kids for two years and now I am teaching senior citizens for AARP. I guess teaching is still a passion of mine.

My generation (Generation X) and the baby boomers (the generation before) were always taught that you find a job and you generally stayed with that same job and/or company until you retired. It was not unusual to be with a company 20, 25, 30 years or more before retirement. The newer generations who are in the workforce now see jobs and careers differently. It has been told to them (and something that they’ve embraced) that you are to do something that you are passionate about. It’s not so much about how much you make, although you wanna make enough to be able to live comfortably, but it’s about feeling that you are doing the work you are meant to do. Now, that does mean that they do change jobs or careers and companies pretty often. It’s not unheard of for people to only work for a company for a few months and then move on to another company. For this newer generation, being in a job or being at a company for more than five years is the exception--not the rule anymore. Times change and so do the expectations, so this is not surprising. For us older folks it’s a little disconcerting, but it seems to be how things are handled. 

What I worry about is that this generation is told that they need to be doing something that they are passionate about. They need to be doing work that they LOVE and that is meaningful to society.  I think that’s good, but I also worry that that puts a lot of expectations on them. They are still a relatively young generation. They start to feel guilty or they start to feel that they are wasting their time because they are not loving every single minute of every single day at their job.  This is not good for their mental health.

I think this “finding a career that you are passionate about” is right and also wrong. Yes, we would all love to be in a career where we felt that we were helping people all the time. We would love to be in a job where we loved every minute of every day that we did that job. But I do think that these are unrealistic expectations. Directly “doing something meaningful to society” is in only a few select careers. Medical field, educational field, and social services (like therapy and social work) to name a few. These are fields that actually do help people directly. Most jobs make a difference indirectly. For example, I may go into politics thinking I’m going to help people and maybe I am but in a very indirect way. I’m not always going to see how my decisions directly affect society. I might work for a business and do something with coding or accounts or analysis. Again, I’m not always going to see how my work directly affects people, but it does affect them indirectly. It affects people who engage in that business like the customer or the clients. It affects the dynamics of the company and it may even affect the product of the company. But I’m not always going to see that direct meaningfulness.

Am I going to love every minute of every day that I work at a job? Absolutely not. I would love to talk to someone who feels that way because I have never met anyone that has had that experience. Just like everything else in the world, there’s the good and there’s the bad. It is a roller coaster--some things you’re gonna absolutely love and some things you’re absolutely going to hate--but most days, most moments in your career, are going to be the middle instead of being the roller coaster. It’s going to be a merry-go-round.  No highs no lows, just putting one foot in front of the other. This may not sound a lot like fun but in reality, that’s kind of how life is. Yes, we have highs. Yes, we have lows but generally, we just have the every day.

Does that mean that people should not be in a career or a job that they feel passionate about? No, I’m not saying that. But I am saying that if you are lucky to be doing a job that you feel does make a difference and that you overall love, that’s wonderful. I think most people fall into two categories--either they are in a job that they are passionate about and don’t realize it or they are in a job just for the paycheck.

So how do you know if you are working in something that you’re passionate about? We just talked about directly being meaningful to society is really not a criteria because you may be helping others indirectly and just not see the results. We also just talked about you’re not going to love every minute of every day that you work. That’s just not a realistic expectation. But we do want to be in a career that is going to make us happy and satisfied and feel like it’s our passion. How do we do that?

I have a simple solution.  Actually, it is a simple question.  But we'll talk about it next week:)

Blog Website: https://www.lifelessonsfrommemaw.com/  

Email: LifeLessonsFromMemaw@gmail.com