When I was younger, I wish someone had told me straight-up that not all adults experience “a calling”. That many of them never find particular purpose in a career. That sometimes, their job is just what pays the bills and they have to seek satisfaction and fulfillment elsewhere.
Because as an adult, this pervasive notion that there exists a perfect path for everyone, that people should love what they do, and that work is meant to function as a vehicle for fulfilling a person’s grand life destiny is not only inaccurate for many of us, it can be toxic.
The ideal is so ingrained that I have to remind myself constantly I’m not a failure because I don’t adore my job, and because I’m not rocking the world with my work. That is okay.
Sometimes, work is just work. There isn’t always a perfect career path, magically waiting to be discovered. There might not be this THING you were born to do. Sometimes, you discover that what you really want to be when you grow up is “paid”.
PLS LISTEN TO THIS, YOUNG PEOPLE. It’s important to have something that’s fulfilling, but that doesn’t have be your job. It can be tending a garden or writing on the weekends or knitting or whatever! It could be solving math problems for fun, trying new recipes, you get my point.
And your job does not define you. What you do right out of college does not define you, and what you do IN college does not define you either. You can get a job doing wtv, and just quit if you hate it. (I realize that quitting is often more complicated when you pay your own way, but the point is, you are not signing a lifetime contract.) I know that your job choice immediately post graduation feels like the most LIFE DEFINING DECISION but it’s really…. Not. Just do something, maybe save some money for a while, because doing nothing is what is really gonna screw you in the end.
So I have a job where I deal with medical stuff.
Today I had a Dr. Watson (different first name).
Then later I had Dr. Martin Freeman.
I barely suppressed giggles.
Today is Harry Potter day at work (I’m wearing an appropriate shirt). I asked if we’re doing a Doctor Who day. November 23. Of course 
It’s Monday. I’m dreading going to work. They switched me to another department a month or so ago and while I started off feeling confident i keep failing calls…mostly for stupid shit. (I work in a call center and need to get ‘certified’ in my new department). I didn’t want to get moved here; they gave me no choice, and now I keep getting the ‘we know you can do this but you’ve GOT to pass,’ speech. My boss in my old department would take me back in a heartbeat and I’m about to just ask to get sent back there for my own sanity.
I’ve been in this job 2 ½ years and I’ve never dreaded coming to work like this. I think I’ve teared up at least once a week for the last couple weeks, whenever I get told I failed again. I’m just utterly frustrated.
Apparently I’m the walking dictionary at work. There was this conversation a moment ago:
“Merinda, what’s that big word for condoms?”
*blink* “Prophylactics?”
Stupid coworkers going off about how another coworker is a nerd for reading Harry Potter and how can they read something so thick is a fast way to make me want to pick up my hardcover Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy off my desk and smack someone. I refrained.
I’m hella snarky, but mostly only in my head. Like, I had a guy who complained because the textbook company I work for didn’t offer 2011 tax forms (we’re textbooks, not H&R Block), because the textbook referenced the tax forms. And I turned to my coworkers and said “So what? History books reference the Black Plague. Doesn’t mean we carry a sample.”