These Many Paths... (Steemit Post Number 2000!)

Once upon a time, I used to really envy those who seemed to have their life path all figured out, and lived with a strong "knowing" of what they want to do, and what they wanted to achieve.

It was something I saw in some of my peers, even when I was in high school.

"That must be pretty amazing," I thought to myself, "I wonder if there's something WRONG with me, since I don't have a CLUE what I want to do?"

The strange thing about it is that I always had a much clearer idea of who I was as a person, than what I was supposed to be doing!

As I have mentioned on occasion, I got myself a university degree — at the cost of many thousands of dollars; this is America! — which I then proceeded to not use for anything. It helped me get one gig, once, because the requirement was "must have 4-year university degree."

My degree is in Finance and the gig was for grading English papers.

The other day I was talking to a young friend — mid-20's — who was all fired up about embarking on his life's dream as a game developer. He knows exactly where his path is, and he even knows the niche he's going to focus on. And he will be very good at what he does...

Not sure why, but no single thing has ever called strongly to me, filling me with a sense that this would be my life; my vocation; my calling. I've had a few ideas, most of which turned out to be something you couldn't actually make a living at. Which is — of course — OK... not all things are meant to be work.

The fun thing about life when you don't really know what you're doing or what you want to do is that you end up trying a lot of different things!

This mysterious thing called "a career" being absent from my life, I have always just drifted from gig to gig.

Whenever I found myself in a pinch, I would figure out how to use something "I knew how to do" as a pathway to get me through the crisis. Anything from home care aide to grading English papers for standardized state exams to being a technical writer to being an editor.

I'm still an editor... now and then.

On occasion, I have been asked if it isn't "scary" to not have a regular job.

It used to be, when I first started drifting around. In time I learned that I could always find something, to bridge a gap, and I also learned to live a lifestyle where I could get by with very little, and "doing without" was a normal state of affairs.

As a footnote, this is not a case of having parents who didn't teach me the value of hard work and ambition. They absolutely did! The fault lies entirely with me; I just wasn't ever a very ambitious person.

I suppose an interesting study in "nature vs. nurture." My parents were both very materialistic and success oriented. However, that part of the human experience just never came naturally to me.

Truth be known, I'm actually pretty happy. But occasionally old insecurities raise their ugly head and distant echoes of being told that I was "wasting my life" and "not using my potential" ring through my mind.

All the way up to her passing, my mother would regularly ask me when I was "planning to get a REAL job."

I never did.

That said, I think my life is pretty real!

If there's a lesson here, it might be that there are many paths through life. And some of those might not correspond to the "publicly prescribed" version of how we're supposed to live.

But that's OK. As long as your path is authentic, and a true representation of who you are!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!

P.S.: Of no particular import, this is my 2,000th top level post since becoming part of the Steemit community. That works out to about 275 blog posts per year... that's a lot of writing, if you think about it!

How about you? Did you always have a clear sense of what you were supposed to do with your life? Or was it more a process of experimentation? Are you still experimenting, or have you found your place? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — Not posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2024.04.30 01:23 PDT
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