Born to ... ?

[Milo]

What a weird way to start a thread, but: I saw the Katy Perry movie last weekend. And one things that stuck out to me was how Katy said ever since she started to sing as a child, her only goal in life was to perform, and to do whatever it took to make that possible.

And even now, during interviews, she says that she's not bothered by fans that want to meet her, because if it wasn't for her fans, she wouldn't have a job. And that celebrities who complain about their fans don't deserve to be celebrities. (I went into this movie feeling ambivalent about her, but left a Katy Perry fan.)

I'm envious of people who have always known their vocation/purpose their entire lives. Many of my friends are very successful artists/musicians who have expressed similar sentiments. When I was a child, I didn't have many huge dreams. Baby Milo just wanted to have a cute house and spend time in the woods...

What about you? Have you had a calling your whole life? Are you following it?

[Chiquita]

[checkersumthing]

I consider myself someone who always knew more or less what she wanted to do. Not the specifics mind you, or the path I would take, but I always had a pretty good idea. And looking back, I can see more and more small things that now make sense. Which is really neat!

I always knew I wanted to work with buildings. And now I'm an engineer and work as a project manager for renovation and rehabilitation projects. But even more basic than that, I always knew I was very much a visual person, and liked using my hands. I LOVED arts and crafts as a kid, but not in a fine arts kind of way but more of a process kind of way. In kindergaden my favorite activity was the block area. At one point I wanted to be a museum curator (I was young, maybe 8 at the time, and I really liked museums). To this day, when I walk through a museum or gallery I often spend an equal amount of time looking at the space itself, versus the actual art or artifacts on display. But along the way, I didn't know exactly what I'd do, just that this was the direction I wanted to take. I remember being in cegep (post high school/pre university here) and looking at the local university options, and having to decide between architecture or engineering and having a tough time because neither seemed right, until something clicked and I picked building engineering and then everything fell into place (well, sort of, at least it looks that way from a bird's eye view).

I was discussing this with a few coworkers the other day, quite coincidentally, and it was interesting to see how many of us had a pretty good idea we'd end up in our line of work.
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i live at the foot of a mountain: some of my adventures

[anniebeegoode]

I teach sociology and I was born to do it.
If not sociology, I was certainly born to teach.
But I am pretty passionate about sociology too...
I feel very very lucky that I know my passion and that I get to do it everyday.
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I know it's not real, but lunchboxes
-flight of the conchords

[snoopy]

[sibee]

[tinyrock]

Another one who wasn't "born to be" anything.

I've always had diverse interests, and not-particularly-strong ambition. I was recently between jobs, and I was pretty happy kicking around the house reading and knitting most of the day, for weeks at a time. I do need to always be learning something, but I'm pretty flexible about what that is.

I'm getting more comfortable with it just being who I am. I made myself pretty unhappy reading self-help books about following your passion and not getting anywhere. Now I just focus on what things I'd like to do, and look at how they'll affect me 5-10 years down the road (mostly in terms of $$$ and stress level, also where I'll live and status).

[kitchen]

ditto to everything snoopy posted.

i've never really felt a passion to follow any sort of career path or calling. it's something i've struggled with A LOT throughout school and work and now it's a daily concern and source of immense amounts of stress and anxiety. it also doesn't help that i find it very difficult to motivate myself to do things if i'm not at least 75% "into" it, or things i can't bring myself to believe in/support. then i beat myself up and think i should just "grow up & eat shit" bc life isnt fair and loads of people are being underemployed so just deaaaal and be glad you have employment. but this way of thinking is just too simplistic for me and for satans sake, whyyyy does it have to be like that!

all the anxiety around that is coupled with thoughts regarding how i'm living in this incredibly repressed society which is hyperfixated on work, labour, prestige, and money. (self)worth is seemingly tied up into career choices and it just seems so fucked up to me. i struggle with all these idealistic thoughts about taking a paycut and just doing something part time that is enough to "survive" on but will create meaning and happiness in my life. except i have no idea what that would be, so i just gotta toil in a demeaning work environment because if i cant be happy, i might as well get paid. and when i assure myself of this (in order to get through the work week), it just makes me die a tiny bit inside.

i'm sure this is partially because of my age (mid/late 20s) or maybe because i work with a lot of women, but it seems like all the women i've been meeting are either really about their career, or really about starting a family. for someone who is leaning more on the childfree side of the fence i'm struggling to have concrete/tangible/goal oriented conceptualizations about my life and future. it sucks to feel like i'm floating around with no purpose and i'm wasting my life and my time and my energy to only be unsatisfied.

hope this isnt a hijack! i'm in complete AWE of folks who are doing what they want or at least have passions outside of career that keeps them going in their day jobs.
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THE MUNDANE IS TO BE CHERISHED

[artichoke]

[town hall]

I have seldom identified as much with a glitter thread as I do with this one. Especially these bits from kitchen:

[tinyrock]

[scaredsi11y]

I recently found my school journal from fourth grade. In one entry, I wrote that I wanted to be an artist or a teacher.

I studied Art Education for four years before deciding I'd rather pursue a BFA in printmaking. So, I actually ended up doing pretty much exactly what I wanted to do in fourth grade! The funny thing is, I don't remember writing that journal entry, and I didn't (consciously?) pursue either of those things until I was in my early twenties.

I'm not entirely sure what it will translate into, career-wise, but I think it's accurate to say that I was born to make art. Even before I decided to become a "serious" artist, making things was always a big part of my life. ETA: I guess what I'm saying with this last statement is that being born to do XYZ might not necessarily mean (to me) that it's gotta be your paying job.
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"It came to betoken the nation's biking and adulation of automobiles!"

[featherstoryaniweda]

What's really interesting to me is people who say they had no interest or idea what they wanted to do and then just fell into something and loved it.

I can't think of anyone in particular right now, but I remember lots of stories.

In some cases I know that people have had one big event change their lives and give them focus and then in hindsight everything seems to connect.

For instance, I know a lot of people who in sickness went on to discover some transformational health practices and then went on to train and work in that field.

I'm not feeling really good or like I'm explaining this very well, but I'll be back to add more later...great topic though.
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My personal blog!
Creativity!

[pony j]

[rawrlie]

being directionless suuucks.

the number of times i've decided that x thing was my thing since i got out of high school is ridiculous. in the beginning, my career paths weren't really practical, but more recently it's been frustrating to have even the most grounded ideas not work out. maybe i'm not going to be an art historian, but can i just go into accounting or computer science and have that be my forever job already? i know i've always done things at my own speed, and only when i was completely ready to do them, but it gets old. bleh.

my dad and i were just talking about this, actually. he knew at eighteen that he wanted to go into mining, and he's still in mining to this day. but he told me that sometimes he wishes he hadn't been so focused on that path, and we had this weird moment of mutual envy. i think it's not easy for anyone, but at the very least, people with purposes have one less thing to worry about and it's not this constant existential crisis, y'know? or at least there's a good chance of being distracted by consistent paychecks.

speaking of consistency. the only real "calling" i've had over the years is to be a teacher, and more recently i had an epiphany about trying it out and have been looking into starting school again to see if it may be a worthwhile pursuit. i would love it if it worked out! as always, here's hoping.

also, is it sad that i'm excited that the katy perry movie was decent because i kind of love her forever somehow, how did this happen.
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yeah it's overwhelming, but what else can we do?
get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?