I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.
Big bonus points to anyone (other than Lance) who can name that movie.
I recently watched two of my all-time favorite movies from different eras. The first is St. Elmo's Fire (judge not!) and the second is Reality Bites. Both movies deal with groups of friends right after college graduation, the first in the '80s and the second in the '90s. The differences are astounding, yet the underlying theme, I think, is the same. Obviously, I identify more with Reality Bites, as it came out a year before I graduated from BSU, but St. Elmo's Fire is definitely a classic. And it's celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. EW covered it here: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20406218,00.html
Anyway, the point is that when you graduate from college, you have gigantic dreams for your career, your future, your life. And then one day, you stop and observe and nothing is turning out like you thought it would. And realizing that's OK is probably the precise moment you actually grow up. Well, I'm finding the same logic to be true with the India Project. Sure, this isn't where I saw the career path going. But I'm venturing down a new path now and trying to figure out where I'll end up. Of course, until I reach my new destination, I seem to be taking every detour to nowhereville. (Yes, I made up a word.)
While I'm fairly certain that I'll never work in corporate America again, I'm not ruling anything out anymore. I see a correlation between never saying never and this quote from St. Elmo's Fire:
"I always thought we'd be friends forever.""Well, forever suddenly got a lot shorter."
And remember what Winona Ryder's Lelaina said right before landing a job in Reality Bites:
"I was this close to selling fruit at intersections!"
Well, I'm not close to opening a lemonade stand on the cul-de-sac yet, so I think I'm in good shape over here!
4 comments:
"We're on a road to nowhere..." That song was used in Lelaina's video that the MTV-like channel messes with in Reality Bites. Nowhereville...road to nowhere. It seemed like a connection worth making but now I'm not sure.
Lance
Quote is from Say Anything, of course. Post-college I had no big plans or expectations. I spent about two months saying "well, now what?" Then I took a part-time job at a bookstore and have been in that business in some way ever since. Weird...
Lance, you make a fabulous point. I love that song and I'm thinking it was on a mixed tape that you made for me when we graduated...
Steve: How funny is it that we both worked at the same bookstore, but different locations? Still think no other company knows how to throw a Christmas party like TIS. Roof Ballroom, anyone?
Did you see there is a new NBC show coming out called Outsourced? Made me think of you!
http://www.nbc.com/outsourced/
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