Careers

After (or occasionally instead of) sleep, work occupies the most significant portion of my day. From 9:00 in the morning until 6 or 7 at night, I spend five days out of every seven at work. Not only does it occupy the time I actually spend at work, there is also the time spent commuting back and forth (at minimum another hour per day) plus the "recovery time" necessary each night.  The only time I feel is my own is the two precious days each weekend and I have become a miser, jealously guarding each moment of free time, even to the exclusion of time I could be spending with beloved friends and family.

So a while back I began exploring other jobs, thinking that perhaps this was all just the immediate unhappiness caused by the current work environment. But after talking with recruiters and exploring available marketing jobs out there, it has become evident to me that I do not want to work in marketing. Friends have suggested marketing in another sector - such as for a cause I believe in - but despite the fact that my experience fits me for a job in marketing, the thought of spending more time thinking of analyzing markets and figuring out how best to manipulate others into certain behaviors just does not appeal.

Which leaves me back at square one. What do I then want to do with my life? Is there some career that will engage my interest for more than a few years? That will leave me at the end of the day feeling fulfilled? Do I even have the right to expect that from work? Is this just some 21st century quandary without basis? After all, how many thousands of years did people do what their parents did before them with the sole goal of providing food & shelter for themselves and their families?

Last weekend I spent a good deal of time listening to two different lecture series that I had downloaded via audible: one on the anglo-saxon era of English history and the other on fantasy literature. Combined with my recent exploration of the anthropology of religion as well as forays into how the brain works, I came to the realization that the one consistent thing I love most - that I never tire of - is learning. Sometimes I don't even think it matters what - which is how I keep ending up in jobs and careers that seem to have no connection to each other or to my skills. I am forever attracted to learning about something I did not know before. Unfortunately, with most things the drawback is that with most things I feel as though I come to the end of them  and want to move on.

I am currently infatuated with the notion of going back to school. History and Literature are the two subjects I find most intriguing but even there, I have trouble imagining confining myself to a specific slice of them to specialize in if I am to make a career from either. Or maybe a degree in library science is the way to go. That would encompass books, learning and literature in addition to my love of organization and looking things up! Not to mention that USF has a good program - most of which is online - so I could try it out without making too drastic of a switch. I really think that might be the right place to start. I could take the initial course this summer and see where it leads.