One of Florine's best friends was over today from New York. I've only met her a few times but she's really cool and, like Florine, has all this knowledge about a lot of interesting stuff. So anyways Friend started asking her about possible careers for me and we just went in a completely different direction. She brought up the idea of working in a publishing place, reviewing books and stuff, which sounds like fun because you know I have opinions and I like to share them haha.
She talked about doing what you love but with something technical thrown in that's in the same field. There was this girl she taught once (she's a teacher) and she loved music; writing it, singing it, everything about it, but her parents wanted her to go and be a nurse. So she sat down with both of them and she explained to the girl that all her parents wanted was for her to be able to support herself and that's important but in the end she is an adult and should have her own say. So she ended up going to university and became a sound engineer - which still allows her to stay true to what she loves (not to mention become connected with all the singers and songwriters) but at the same time she's able to securely support herself.
The truth is, I don't really know exactly what I love and am passionate about. I've looked at the University of Toronto list of the courses that you can take and I started marking down every one that I was interested in but I ended up circling almost the entire sheet! And U of T offers a LOT of courses on just about everything. Meaning if I were to take every single course I wanted to take I would end up being in university for the rest of my life! And then Friend suggested that instead of taking the course to just buy the book for it instead and you would have just about the same knowledge. And Jann (the name of Florine's friend) started talking about this guy whom she really admires for his knowledge of world mythology and has become very influential in today's world. He was doing his thing for a PhD and one day realised that there were so many limitations on everything that it was forcing him into a direction he did not want to go. So he dropped out. Got out of university, lived in an almost rent-free little shack on the beach so he didn't need as much money, and just read. For an entire year, all he did was read. And also run, because he was really athletic too. And nobody ever went up to him and was like "Oh, umm you don't have a PhD?" He's actually now a teacher teaching PhD courses!
To me that just sounds so cool. Not to mention a totally amazing experience. I for one certainly wouldn't mind living by the beach doing nothing but read ;) But anyways, the past hour or so has been a refreshingly different perspective to looking at the future. It seems to be such a big focus, especially in the past few months. Which is a good thing to be sure, but at the same time when you're hearing everything over and over again it can be a little redundant, especially when you realize you have no goal in life other than to retire lol.
Anyways I'm just rambling on again when really I should be doing a calculus assignment and making a poster on Les Seychelles (a francophone country northeast of Madagascar) so I better get started on those, in that order. If you too are struggling with choosing a career hopefully you got something out of this too, though I know a blog is not like being there in person and having the actual conversation.
Wow this is a long blog considering it's only about the past hour. All day it's been exciting; for example there was a girl I had just met yesterday and talked to a little bit, eleven years old, helping out with the kids at the Easter thing, and who did I see getting baptized in church this morning but her! Talk about cool. And after church Friend and I got to go to a few places to drop off some papers for the people that couldn't make it to church and it was nice to be able to see everyone and brighten up their day a little bit. Next week he has the shut-in communion and he invited me along so I'm excited. Something like that sounds like it'd be such a drag (which is why a lot of people don't) but when you do I don't know who enjoys it more, you or the people you visit!
Did I mention it's a beautiful day today? The sun's shining, the sky is blue, the trees outside are fluttering with the breeze... so far it's been a good day. You may not see me in such a good mood later on when I realize I no longer understand calculus and start stressing but hey it's always good to have variety! :D
14 years ago
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