Vocation, an embellishment within one’s self that is facilitated through gifts, talents, enjoyments, and passions. Sustained through inexplicable instinct, it is not just a job, but it is “a calling.” It is a voice that calls to every individual. The eccentricity of one’s vocation is beyond comprehension and the understanding of one’s vocation is beyond words; this I believe. Embedded within our genetic make-up, vocation is formed through unique talents that one possesses which no imitation can surmount to. Solely through one’s exceptional deliverance, one’s incomparable perspective; each individual obtains their own “calling.” Similar to how a mother can hear the distinct call of her child, the whisper of one’s “calling” is so exclusive that there is no other tonality, pitch, or tempo of one’s “calling” that is the same.
On average a professional has five career changes. This doesn’t mean that they have lost their vocation, but rather they are dismantling the complexity of their vocation, to its core. Many struggle with the recognition of the vocation. I can admit that my academic path has led me down various areas of study. In elementary school I loved to read, math was no problem, and history was as easy as memorizing all fifty states and their capitals, no problem! When I was in Jr. High, I enjoyed non-fictional books, novels and the arts. And in high school I did well in math and science. Now that I’m in college I have developed a deficiency which has made it hard to get in touch with my effortless comprehension of basic equation principles that I once had. I now hate and am terrible at it. I now indulge myself in philosophy, trailblazers of psychology, and world religions. Applying to colleges I had no idea what I wanted to study. Which is ironic for a very concrete thinker, a “black and white” optimist, and who is intolerant of uncertainty; this was unusual for me. But I knew that college was a process. I figured that within these first four years of college I would hear my “calling.”
It is throughout my academic career I became more comfortable during my metamorphosis; learning to intently yield to the “calling.” To me it is the journey that prepares one to hear and receive one’s vocation. The journey can seem ever-changing. It may even lead to dead ends, yet the voice of vocation still calls unwearyingly anticipating its master’s response. The “calling” can be unrecognizable, strange, or even preposterous; nonetheless the “calling” is real and ageless.
I believe through understanding one acquires selflessness, mastery, and awareness of one’s unique aptitudes. Vocation is a feeling deep within one’s soul; it is a “calling” of one’s purpose. Some call it a career others call it an awakening. This idea is clearly illustrated by a popular Quaker saying, “vocation is our life speaking through our work.” We are what we do and we do as we have grown to be. This I believe.