So, I've come to point in my life where I've decided that I'm going to be an IT technician (for now that is...) I get to start a week of classes today, but my brain decided it hated me last night. I woke up this morning around 3 and couldn't get back to sleep. Thanks Brain!
I never really imagined being a technician when I grew up. I always wanted to be a police officer when I was really young, but slowly realized that can get you shot. (My brothers liked to torture me with nerf guns, and those were bad enough...) I ultimately decided being in Criminal Justice wasn't the career path for me. Even if you get to ride around with a dog in your car...
I've often contemplated what I was going to do with my life. I've never been blessed with the clairvoyance to know what will make me happy for the rest of my life, so I've pondered long and hard on how to best appease my own sense of self-fulfillment while still being able to provide for a family. (And yes, that was something I was thinking about as a teenager. In high school. Apparently that's strange to most people...)
I thought for many years that I was going to be an author. In fact, I still haven't given up on that dream. I sadly have realized that I just don't always know the best way to express my ideas in words. In my head I have a great scene that's poignant and thrilling, but what comes out on the page sounds like a fourteen year on meth. (That might be a slight exaggeration, but I think you get my point.) I keep hoping that I will wake up one morning and all these ideas will come pouring out of my head and make themselves into a book that I can take to a publisher. It hasn't happened so far...
I've also toyed with the idea of being in the "music business". I love music, just in case you couldn't tell from previous posts. I just am not that great of a musician (you have to actually play an instrument for that). So I thought that I could work behind the scenes as a sound technician. Turns out, most colleges don't have a program for that. The few that do, can be a little pricey. Not to mention the fact that I never went to college (for more than a semester that is...), and sadly I assumed it wasn't meant to be.
The most recent of my wacky ideas for a career path was to be a chef. I love food. I've always loved food. I find it thrilling. I actually enjoy taking time to craft a good meal. Unfortunately, EVERYONE is becoming a chef nowadays. (Apparently I'm not the only one who turned an obsession with the Food Network into thoughts of a new career.) It was a cutthroat industry to begin with that just got even more competitive. Also, culinary school = uber-expensive. I really don't have that kind of money right now.
Therefore, I have settled on IT. It's not super glamorous. Yes, most of the job is dealing with people who don't know how what on earth I'm talking about. But maybe, just maybe, I can have a real career of it. (I could actually buy a house AND put food on the table!) It's what I'm going with for now.
I'm not going to say that I won't be an author or a chef. I'm not going to say that I will never influence the music industry. I'm just going to keep working to support my wife and the children that we will eventually have. And for now, that's more than good enough for me.
John
1 comment:
It's interesting to hear your prospective on this. I always wanted to be a famous dancer, singer and actress, like until I was 12. After deciding that you probably ought to be good at dancing, singing OR possibly acting to pull that off, I was a bit lost for what else to do.
I would occasionally find something I was interested in and then lose interest. The engineering thing clicked for me because I was around engineers a lot and now I have a better idea what kind of work they do and I've decided it's interesting.
Really, though, sometimes I think who I work with matters 10 times more than what I work on. If I can find a company I like more than I don't with people I like more than I don't, I figure that's a good place to start, at least.
As for the writing bit, the authors I like best are often the ones that went out and did something (sometimes even just menial work) and then had experiences to write about. Maybe being an IT guy will help launch your writing career!
Also, IT guys are so important! People don't know squat about computers and desperately need them to work in order to keep the company working. It's certainly a worthwhile thing to be good at!
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