The dream job.
As kids, we were always asked what we wanted to be when we grew up. Most of the time, our answers were certain: astronaut, ballerina, artist, police officer.
As we grow older, our dream job takes on a more abstract quality: a thing of magical nature—shiny and bright.
It’s something many desire, yearn, work for, yet few have claimed. What we grow up thinking is that a dream job is perfectly packaged—a puzzle piece that fits into our lives the way we want it, where we want it, and when we want it. That it’s something that stumbles into our hands and goes click! like it’s meant to be there, belongs there.
What no one told us is that the dream job is elusive. It sneaks in and out of your consciousness. One moment, you’re sure: this is it. This is what I want to do. The next, you’re left alone, the fallen certainty hanging there in the air like a question mark.
Even those of us who find ourselves drawn like magnets toward chosen aspirations have moments where the shadows of doubt creep in and the mystical dream job seems to slip away.
What they didn’t tell us is that the path to the dream job isn’t a straight shot. That, most of the time, it’s a briar-covered trail off the main road with shadows that look a little scary. That you don’t ever know for sure what your destination truly is, though sometimes a possibility or two dances in front of your path, just out of reach.
Even more?
They don’t mention that the dream job isn’t stationary. You see, the dream job is the path. The dream job is a series of a question marks and exclamation points and dot dot dots. It’s strung together with odds and ends: part-time jobs and internships and places that almost felt right and the job you stayed at far too long. It’s made up of disappointments and mistakes and successes so big you have to share them.
And what they really don’t tell you? The dream job can be the job you have right now. The thing you’re working so hard at every single day. It’s about changing your perspective and seeing that the things you are passionate about and dedicated to are the things getting you to your dreams.
So what’s yours?
VINAZINE 