The Usual

I must say, if I could interview the version of myself the roamed around 2 or 3 years ago, I would not be getting any rave reviews from myself. I used to think the world of business/having a job/working most days was analogous to those man-eating worms that terrorized small town citizens in a series of Sci Fi movies the names of which escape me. As long as the hapless citizens kept moving and stayed on some isolated patches of stone or a rooftop, they were mostly safe. If they ventured off of these sanctuaries(so dramatic and cheesy. I know. I'm starting to sound like a writer for one of these movies), one of them usually got eaten. The point is, 2 or 3 years ago I wasn't going to sell out. To anyone. For anything. If I had to move to the beach and live there naked and play guitar late at night for money and catch fish with my hands, I was NOT going to get a job at a desk inside.

Some of the career ideas that I've had before are things like being a fly fishing guide(be honest, it's a great idea), being the first astronaut to fly into a black hole, preying on the hapless minds of the masses by becoming a motivational speaker who "empowers" people by telling them to go for early morning jogs, to eat less, and see themselves as lonely beacons of hope in a dark world(look, it would more than pay the bills), and getting paid to insult people. I'm not writing any of these ideas off, but I think they will be part-time ventures, at best. The reason is that I actually found work at an inside desk I like to do. Heck, I might start loving it soon. My work keeps me up at night, it's on my mind a lot, I really like being with it, and I take it on lunch and dinner dates. It's basically a girlfriend that doesn't get mad at me for not washing my pants or for forgetting to call. I don't know what happened. I tried to save myself from selling out to the man-eating commerce machine. I tried to tuck my soul away in the lofty tower of pseudo-intellectual trendiness. There were times, early in college, when I thought I was going to be the next Robert Frost. Not because I was good at writing, because I'm just average as you know, but because I wanted to be invited places to talk about my writing, and talk at great length. I've grown up since then. Growing up doesn't mean I've lost my soul and that I now dream of rolling around in Spanish doubloons, because I've always dreamed of that, but I've become more aware of what the world is really like. Here are some things that I've learned:

1. I was created to work.

2. There are things that I enjoy doing that fall under the title of work.

3. Those things require me to work a lot, even if I like them.

4. I am really hungry right now. (I didn't learn that a long time ago, I just learned it a few minutes ago. I worked through lunch apparently)

It's amazing how productive and engaged you can be in your work when you realize that you have to be, because if you aren't you wont have a place to live or food to eat. Girls don't like starving or living under a tree, and I remind myself of that when I wake up and don't want to go to work. Frankly, I don't like starving either. Humans have this tremendous capacity to process different kinds of information and do different kinds of tasks in very short amounts of time. I'm writing this and going through a CSS tutorial at the same time. You're reading this and thinking about what you're going to eat for dinner, that funny joke you wish you had told at the right time so that everyone else would have thought it was funny too, and about when the next time is that you're going to get to kiss. See. The difference between someone who is successful at what they do and someone who isn't, I think, is their level of focus and energy. No one is made to be lazy. You or I weren't meant to be a has-been and a waste of talent. If you think that you are, stop being an idiot. You have a brain, and it can do a lot of cool things, so use it.

 Work doesn't have to be something that is an obstacle to your happiness, it can be a platform for being more human. Work is interacting with other people, it is engaging the world around you and adding value to it. Or rather, it can be those things. I'm not trying to say that work doesn't suck sometimes, because it does. I'm saying it doesn't have to all the time. Don't misrepresent work or the business world or anything else to justify being a loser. Get off your ass and make some money doing something you care about.