Mon 27 Aug 2007
This past weekend I attended my great friend, Robert’s officer commissioning ceremony for the Marine Corps. After the short ceremony, everyone had brunch together where we all chatted and got to know a little about each other. After meeting several of his Marine friends, I noticed that during conversation with each person, I was asked what I do for work, or if I go to school. These seem to be pretty standard questions when it comes to meeting people for the first time, or during any other typical conversation. After the third or fourth person asking the same question, I got to thinking, “Is all we really think of ourselves is what we do for work?” Is our identity solely formed from the job we spend doing forty-plus hours a week?
There has to, and is, a much larger, brighter answer than that of stating your position at work. A question about what you do for a living doesn’t have to solely mean a career. How could we cover up all the fun and meaningful things we do in life with the day in and day outs of the stressful work life? I would much rather answer the question by saying I love to run and bicycle. That spending time with my family and friends doesn’t only have to be kept for the weekend, but a daily meeting. By shutting out the qualities in life that mean the most only seems to hurt us, more and more.
I believe when someone asks you, “So what do you do?” Most people respond with the assumption that they are asking about work, so you shoot them the line, “I am a ______.” A lot of the times I feel that we are not really proud of whatever position we stated, so you should ask yourself how truly meaningful that job feels to you. Do you get a sense of pride? Is there any guilt when saying where you work; or do you want to say, “I am only a ______.” If this is the case, this little defense isn’t helping anything but hiding the fact that what you shape your life as is something you personally don’t love. We cannot have a true passion in life if we wholly mold ourselves from the working title we state to the people we meet (unless you are actually doing something you fully enjoy, which is rare. Bravo!).
Step out of the box for a minute and go over how you’re seeing your life run. If all you do is work and dread every minute of it, maybe you should make a change. If you enjoy it and think it’s the best thing that’s ever happened since sliced bread, then keep on chugging away! But overall, we shouldn’t think that we are our jobs; there is a lot more to us than that.
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August 28th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I think it’s easy in certain part of American culture to define ourselves as work. For many of us, it’s near impossible to step out of that arbitrary box. We all should, but being able to see that box for what it is, is incredibly difficult.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:27 am
I completely agree that it is customary in American culture to engulf yourself so much in your work that you seem to become it. It’s the process of finding a different part of yourself is what most people should focus on. It is definitely unfortunate that most of us cannot see this side of life.
Thanks for the comment!
August 30th, 2007 at 6:42 am
I think the point Joe is trying to make is that when someone asks us the question, “what do you do?” we automatically respond with our present occupation. Why is it so hard to reply with, “I am a hardcore runner and biker and I love to go to movies.” It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense that our job is “what we do”….
August 30th, 2007 at 9:15 am
The approach that this takes seems to be much more healthy than that of “workaholics”. Why not throw out the passions to those who ask… it makes who you are!