Do What You Love, If Possible.

Every day when I wake up early in the morning to go to my 9 to 5 job I tell myself that I need to pursue a career in what I enjoy doing. I won’t say I hate my job because honestly I don’t. But, I don’t love it either. The benefit of my job is that it is secure. Most people work jobs that pay the bills and feed their families, but they have no real joy in what they do for a living.

I understand that you can find joy by knowing your family is taken care of because of your job, that you have a good relationship with your coworkers, and that you won’t likely get laid off or whatever benefits you receive from your job.  I too want the comforts in knowing I have a secured paycheck that can pay my bills and benefits that will take care of my health n shit. I also want to feel joy in the work that I wake up to do.

My mother earned significant less money than my father during her career. My mother retired as a teacher’s assistant at an elementary school. Although, I believe my mother was more happy with her career than my father because she loved her job. She loved the work days and school hours, the long summer breaks, the insurances, making friends with coworkers, and other things. But, most importantly she loved her work. She knew the impact she had on those students future by prepping them with much knowledge for the next grade level.

My father’s career paid the bills and gave his family all our needs and most of our wants, and I am totally grateful for my dad’s career choices. Although, I never felt like my dad loved his job. I’m sure he liked it. He got his masters degree to get a promotion, but I believe he solely did his work because it was a secured career to take care of his family.

My dad retired as a Project Manager. I never really understood his work because he never talked about it. All I know was the location of the building he worked in that I never entered; he worked 9 to 5, and wore business casual clothes. I knew everything about my mom’s job. She always came home and talked about how her work day went. I knew how her students were doing, which coworkers she liked and disliked, the plans for the school in the future. I knew it all about her job and it was always interesting to hear.

So, not everyone has the opportunity to do what they love for a living. Some people have to put their families before their dreams, some people do not have a talent that can become a career. Then again, not all talents have to be your career. I can do what I love, which is writing, and never make a dollar from it. But, for my personal goals making money from my writing is what I consider successful. Some people have a talent that they love to do but receiving a paycheck from it doesn’t even cross their minds. Money isn’t necessarily success, but for a writer like myself, I know there is money to be made, so I’m going to go for it.