Missing Link

Throughout our young formative years most of us can hardly wait to grow up.  We want to be an adult, to have the freedom to do whatever we want (really, the freedom to say “no” to our parents without it resulting in being grounded, smacked, or both.).  What we don’t realize (the grass is always greener…) is that being an adult is not all fun and games (unless your career involves fun and games, in which case the vast majority is fun and games).  We work hard to make money to pay bills and survive.  That little tidbit is obfuscated for kids – they don’t immediately make that jump in logic even though it’s right there in front of their face.

Part of being an adult is finding a job,  and then using that job to catapult your career forwards.  Some find jobs and stay with them indefinitely.  Others hop from job to job every few months.   Still others stay for a while, but over time trend upwards in their positions as promotions are passed down to them.  Very few, however, really enjoy their work.  How can I make this claim?     Well – it’s based off observation.  How many times have you heard someone say “Wow, I LOVE my job!” versus someone saying “Work sucks, I want to go home”?   I hear the latter more often than the former. 

That’s a pretty big problem, hating your job.  Since you spend the VAST MAJORITY of your waking adult life slaving away, it’s probably pretty important that you actually enjoy what you do – otherwise you’re in for a world of hurt.  You can probably survive for a year, maybe two, but eventually you’ll just grow to hate it so much that the thought of going into work will cause physical manifestations of your dislike for it.  I have SEEN someone get physically sick because they remembered on a Sunday afternoon that they had to go to work in the morning.

I KNOW this, yet I find myself where many Americans (and probably other nationalities too) find themselves – in a job I don’t particularly like.  It’s not that I don’t like the TYPE of work I am doing, or even that I don’t like the company I’m doing it for (both, on their own, I like). It’s when you put the two together that I don’t like it.

I currently do more policy work, and attending meetings, than actual hands-on technical work.  I miss the hands-on work, the stuff that I really enjoy doing.  I hate policy (especially when nobody reads it and gives you feedback on it…. After over a month….. and after requesting a response on it, repeatedly…. I digress), I abhor meetings (especially pointless ones where nothing happens) and I dislike working for a company that doesn’t give me the authority to operate effectively. 

I’ve been trying to determine my calling.    To figure out what, exactly, I’m supposed to be doing with my life. 

This past weekend I went with the team photographer for the Indiana Ice to go photograph one of their games.  I’ve been into photography for a while, but just this year got more serious about it – getting a DSLR and trying out new and different types of photography.  The chance to try sports photography from an incredible vantage point was awesome – I couldn’t pass it up.     

I had a great time at the game and really hope I have the opportunity to do it again.  You can see my pictures from the game here.

If I thought I could make money doing it, I’d turn to photography as a career.    I know I’m not nearly good enough a photographer to do that, though, so onward I march in the rat-race I call my career.