Gotta go to work, gotta go to work, gotta have a job...

Everyone has to grow up sometime.

--my mother, in a recent phone conversation.

Part of growing up is having a career, unless you have a lifetime vocation of another kind.

Lifetime vocations that are not careers include things like being a wife/mother and entering the religious life. The Lord didn't make me for the nunnery, I'm pretty sure, and the other option is not something I'm going to rely on happening.

Conclusion: I belong to the set {everyone}, and I do not belong to the set {other lifetime vocation}. Therefore, I need a career.

What's a career?
A long-term job path. Preferably, one where you become a [something]. This is a good way to check if it's a career or not: you can't become a restocking-books-at-Borders-late-at-night, but you surehell can become a doctor.

A career must, at least in the long-term, make you financially secure. Otherwise it's not a career, it's a hobby.

A career is like a road map for your life. A road map doesn't guarantee at all that you'll end up in the place you thought you would, but it's a good idea to have one. Also, road maps and careers are both things that your parents strongly urge you to have; if they can, they'll buy you one.

Sometimes your parents refer to this whole concept as "what you want to do with your life." Usually it's in the form of a question, as in "That's nice, but what do you want to do with your life?" This provides a valuable insight into your parents' thinking on this point--it's not just that they want you to move out of the basement, and it's not that they won't love you anymore if you don't make partner before you're thirty. It's that they want you to do something with your life. Something real, something important. Something worthy of your talents. It's true, what you do with your life in the essential sense doesn't have to be the same thing that you make your money from. But for most people it is, at least in large part. The point is, what you make your money from should be fulfilling, something you can be proud of, because you're going to spend a lot of your life doing it.

Conclusion: For all these reasons, the object is to find a career that you'll be good at, that is worthy of you, and that you actually want to do, not just for the money.

So. I already have a job. And it almost fits the definition of a career. It passes the first test: you can indeed become a university lecturer. I'm good at it. Being a teacher is a worthy occupation, and it's fitting . The fact that it's at the university level doesn't actually make it more worthwhile in itself, but there's a certain added dignity to the name, at least. And the important part: I want to do it. I love doing it. I can think of a number of things that I'd be good at, and that sound impressive, but this is the first work I've found that I want to do. I would do it for free, and that's coming from someone who likes money and hates to work. In fact, I have done it for free, every single exam week at the college. This is my calling. I'm as sure of that as I am about anything.

But. My parents are right. The job I have right now does not fit one of the criteria: it will not make me financially secure, in the long run. I make enough money to live comfortably over here. I travel a lot, I drink good beer. I feel pretty fucking rich, in fact. But I don't want to spend the rest of my life in the Czech Republic. I love it here, but when you come down to it, my family and my friends are in the US. And because of the currency difference, the longer I stay here, the more completely I'm cutting myself off from being able to go home, ever.

Conclusion: I've found my calling; all I need is a way to make American money doing it. But I'm tired of typing now, so I'll leave it until a future post to present My Cunning Plan in all its glory.


NOTE: In this essay, "you" is actually me. I'm explaining it to myself, so I can figure out how to explain it to my parents. I'm not judging anyone's career plans or lack thereof, nor am I trying to lecture you like a Dutch uncle. No need to get your panties in a bunch.