White Orchid Melody

How can we live without a job?  I never even considered the possibility when I was younger.  I immediately assumed I’d go to college, choose a major, graduate, and get a job doing whatever it was I’d studied.  Isn’t that how things are supposed to work?  I’ve met very few people who’ve followed that path.  The wandering begins in college where the average student (at my alma matter, anyway) changes majors 8 times before graduation.  Guess things aren’t so clear cut after all.  Supposing one can finally pinpoint what it is they want to study, the variables continue after graduation.  First, are there jobs available in that area?  Second, do you really want to work at that type of job 40+ hours a week?  Third, can you support yourself on the amount of income that work provides?  These are all very real questions new grads must ask.  But what I think gets a lot of people is discovering after landing their dream job, that it isn’t all its cracked up to be. 

So then what?  Suffer along in the day to day grind?  Get another job that you may or may not enjoy?  I was in a fortunate position to be able to just opt out of the whole process.  That isn’t to say I haven’t worked.  I still do freelance work in my chosen “profession.”  But now I have time to explore other options.  I was given the opportunity to teach at a university part time, which is something I never in a million years dreamed I’d enjoy.  But I have enjoyed it quite a bit.  I’ve found I enjoy tutoring more than teaching however, as the latter involves all of the administrative functions I loathe.  It is, in fact, quite similar to the “corporate” world I left behind.  I do however enjoy helping people learn and understand things.  And I’ve grown as an individual by experiencing that side of myself.

I’ve discovered that you don’t actually need a “job” in the traditional sense of the word, to make a living.  I make a decent amount of supplemental income with my part time work.  If I had to make a full income, I could.  The point is to find things that you enjoy and figure out how you can make money from that.  I read somewhere that “your imagination has the solution to all your financial worries.”  If you do what you enjoy you are sending positive energy out into the world around you and that is exactly what you’ll get back. 

So, I try to identify things I enjoy.  I don’t always make the correlation between my enjoying an activity and its revenue generating potential.  But my husband is often quick to point it out (and I do the same for him).  For example, he’s convinced that I should create some templates for baby books like the one I’m making for us, so that I could market custom baby books.  He’s right.  People would probably pay good money to have their beautiful memories documented in a custom baby book.  Most new moms don’t have time for that sort of thing.  Especially if they have other children at home or work outside the home.  That is just one example of an opportunity to turn something you enjoy into something profitable. 

People sometimes find themselves in a career path they don’t enjoy and contemplate perhaps furthering their education so as to pursue other endeavors.  But I think the conversations they have with themselves are often limited to “higher” education.  Have a bachelor’s, get a master’s; have a master’s, get a doctorate.  Seldom do they consider lower levels of education, such as technical or trade studies.  But it could be just the thing.  Suppose you really enjoy gardening.  A landscaping certificate from the local community college is loads cheaper than a master’s degree in anything.  And your gift with purchase is the happiness and freedom of doing something you love.  It is still a job, but you are the boss.  Eventually it could grow into a true business with you training others and stepping away from the actual work into more of a management capacity.  But only if you want it to.  Depending on your financial needs, you may be content to just work solo.  That is the beauty of defining your own path.  It can take you wherever you want to go.