This week I have been taking a little break from gardening and blogging to concentrate on my inner struggle to choose a career path. Since I’m virtually donating my time here in the DR, I’m feeling the need to find work in which I can make a comfortable living and serve humanity and love what I do.
By sitting with this question, one thing has become clear: that what I do does not define who I am but rather that I, Margot, the human being, define what I do.
In college I chose to major in sustainable agriculture because it is so broadly defined and interdisciplinary. At 25, I find myself still holding out, not devoting myself to a particular category of work, afraid it will box me in or define me. I am able to keep procrastinating making a choice because I tell myself I’m just waiting for the “right” career to appear, and of course it never comes because none are ever “right” enough. I’ve been afraid to take any real steps toward a more defined career because I’ve been putting all my focus into the “what” of a career and completely losing sight of the “who” behind it all. Now that I’m clear I need to take some action, make some defining decisions, I am searching for a greater sense of anchoring in the “Me, Margot, the human being,” place.
In my experience, many people in my parent’s generation (ages 50-60) feel that they were what they did and are just now trying to find meaning beyond the material. On the other side of the spectrum the New Agers swung so far away from the material that they have isolated themselves and now have little influence in society. I know I’m not the only 20-something that’s searching for a better balance of material and spiritual, the “what” and the “who.” I love this idea John Gerber, my sustainable ag teacher at UMass, is always writing and talking about: that as young people straight out of college we need to have the courage to create work rather than to just “get a job.” (source of inspiration: http://www.earththrives.com/component/content/article/51-press/286-sustainable-agriculture-jobs-after-college.html)
By sitting with this question, one thing has become clear: that what I do does not define who I am but rather that I, Margot, the human being, define what I do.
In college I chose to major in sustainable agriculture because it is so broadly defined and interdisciplinary. At 25, I find myself still holding out, not devoting myself to a particular category of work, afraid it will box me in or define me. I am able to keep procrastinating making a choice because I tell myself I’m just waiting for the “right” career to appear, and of course it never comes because none are ever “right” enough. I’ve been afraid to take any real steps toward a more defined career because I’ve been putting all my focus into the “what” of a career and completely losing sight of the “who” behind it all. Now that I’m clear I need to take some action, make some defining decisions, I am searching for a greater sense of anchoring in the “Me, Margot, the human being,” place.
In my experience, many people in my parent’s generation (ages 50-60) feel that they were what they did and are just now trying to find meaning beyond the material. On the other side of the spectrum the New Agers swung so far away from the material that they have isolated themselves and now have little influence in society. I know I’m not the only 20-something that’s searching for a better balance of material and spiritual, the “what” and the “who.” I love this idea John Gerber, my sustainable ag teacher at UMass, is always writing and talking about: that as young people straight out of college we need to have the courage to create work rather than to just “get a job.” (source of inspiration: http://www.earththrives.com/component/content/article/51-press/286-sustainable-agriculture-jobs-after-college.html)
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