#career goals
I don’t talk much about my day job on this blog, but today, I’d like to talk about it. Since October, I’ve been on a temporary assignment with Disney Live Entertainment as a Show Writer. I started out working on a couple different projects, but then I was assigned to help with documentation for the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser immersive experience.
We had an event a couple weeks ago to celebrate the cast and crew of this experience, and the Disney company shared this picture to social media afterwards. You can see me if you zoom in on the far right, with my hands clasped in front of my goofy grin.
You know how when you’re networking or interviewing for jobs, people like to ask you, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I’ve struggled a lot with that question. I have a very clear image of who I am and what I love to do – I’m a writer, a creative writer, my passion is in storytelling. But I have a hard time taking that passion and smushing it down into a simple little, “In five years I will have X amount of published works and be working for Y company,” or something like that.
But in 2017, I was doing a heck of a lot of networking and interviewing, in the months leading up to that amazing day where I picked up the phone and the recruiter told me I was gonna be the next Disney Live Entertainment Show Writer Intern. People were asking me the “five years” question a LOT in 2017. So, I had to come up with an answer. Here’s what I would say:
“In five years, I see myself standing in a crowd. And the crowd is watching some kind of show – it might be a play, or a movie, or a theme park show, anything. Whatever it is, it’s something that I had a hand in writing. And I’m happy that the story has finally come to life, but I’m also listening to the crowd around me react. I’m thinking about their reactions – if they’re reacting the way we thought they would, or if there are unexpected reactions. And I’m already thinking ahead to how I can learn from those reactions to make the next story I write even better.”
Now, back to the above picture. I take confidentiality agreements really fricking seriously, so I don’t feel comfortable saying too much about this event in this blog post. Suffice to say that just off-camera, someone is standing on a stage and giving a speech. A speech that I wrote.
In this picture, you can see my smile, but you can’t see how badly I was shaking. I stood there in that crowd, right in the middle of everyone laughing, and cheering, and applauding long after the performer left the stage, and all I could do was smile, and tremble, and think that I had never been so proud of something I’d written before.
It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized why I was so verklempt – because in that moment – in this picture – I am exactly where, five years ago, I said I would be in five years.
And this might seem ironic, but… I am at a loss for words.
ohh you misheard! im a paranormal INSTIGATOR. im here to CAUSE hauntings lol
i like lemony snicket because he’s unnecessarily devoted to maintaining his ridiculous persona. see being a children’s book writer really doesn’t require that you adopt a persona, but he does it. he’s been doing it for like a decade. a while back he had a whole feature in poetry magazine and he kept up the persona through the entire thing
I’ve been going back and forth in my head for a couple of weeks now about this. I’ve been applying for a bunch of jobs and I’ve been tossing back and forth between applying for only what I’m passionate about or applying for jobs that I’d simply be good at.
Whenever I mention passion to my much-older cousin, she says it’s dangerous to be fixated on mixing your career with passion. Passion implies forever, and our careers don’t necessarily need to be forever. Especially nowadays when people have several different careers during their lifetimes.
I want to find something I’m passionate about doing because whenever I meet people who are passionate about what they do, I feel a tinge of jealousy - I mean, obviously, right? It was always ingrained in me growing up that I should do what I love and what I’m passionate about, but is that not really the way it is? Just because a very small percentage of the population has managed to find a job they absolutely love, does that have to be what we all strive for? Because it’s almost as hard to find as finding your “soulmate.”
Why isn’t it good enough for all of us if we find a job that pays us so we can live our lives and pay the bills and take the occasional vacation? A job that we might happen to be good at, even though it might not be something we’re particularly passionate about doing?
So, at first I was limiting my job applications to only companies for which I could muster up some degree of passion. Then I realized that those jobs are super few and far between and maybe my cousin was right: just find a job with people that you like (or can at least tolerate), that pays you well, and that you’re good at and, live your life outside the office.
I went to school for theatre management and took an extra several-month course in commercial producing after graduation. I worked in theatre and the pay was lousy and the hours were even worse. I loved some of the shows I was working on, but even though I loved (and still love) theatre, I knew it wasn’t the end of the world if I didn’t work in the industry anymore. It was my passion and I could do it outside work.
Isn’t that generally what passions are anyways? Things you do in your free time? Yes, I’d love to teach yoga full-time, but that path is hard as fuck, and you have to hustle, and I don’t know if I’m cut out for that.
So, in the meantime, I’m going to try to teach (for $$ or volunteer) yoga on the side and then get a job that I’m good at. I’ll try my best not to work in an industry that I find revolting (again) and be content that maybe I’m not 100% passionate about what I do from 9 to 5 every day. My life outside of work is more important at the end of the day: friends, yoga, meditation, theatre, music.
And if you make your passion your day job, is it really your passion anymore? Just asking. For a friend.
