I had a lot of different jobs before I found “the one.” I worked as a lifeguard, a prep cook and in retail. I did public relations, gave school tours, and wrote grants for a theater. However, none of these jobs ever challenged me the way teaching writing does. This is why I believe in finding a vocation—a job that is not just a job.
This belief started with my parents. My mom taught English as a Second Language to adults while my dad was a criminal defense attorney. Their work followed them home—popping up in dinnertime conversation, in late night phone calls from clients and students, and in legal-sized file folders and lesson-plan filled spiral notebooks that would cover the dining room table. Watching them in the classroom and the courtroom was electrifying. My parents regularly modeled what it looked and sounded like to take on a challenging job and learn from it every day.
Right before I left for college, my dad took me out to breakfast to tell me the story of his undergraduate career. He had almost flunked out because for too long he stuck to a career goal that didn’t interest him. That morning over coffee and pancakes, he told me that I should learn from his mistakes and not be afraid to change my mind or my major as I figured out what I wanted to do with my life.
Others are not so lucky. I have friends who were told by their parents that they had three career options–a doctor, a lawyer, or business. “That writing thing you do,” one woman’s parents told her, “That is just a hobby.” My writing tutor was informed by his first-generation parents, “You will be a nurse.” It didn’t matter that he loved English and philosophy and couldn’t stand the sight of blood. His parents saw a job as a job and not as something that should be chosen with as much care and with much the same criteria as a spouse or life partner.
I discovered my life’s work as a graduate student. I was terrified the first time I sat down to work with a student in the writing center but by the end of the 45-minute session, I was excited, energized and hooked. I discovered I had a passion for talking with and helping writers and I have continued to feel that way no matter what the setting or how advanced or inexperienced the writer.
There have been many years, cities of residence, and student loans between that a-ha moment and my current role as professor of composition and director of my college’s writing center. However, like my parents, I had the good fortune to find a job that excites, exhausts, sometimes frustrates, but never ever bores me. This is why, even in today’s brutal economy where any job is better than no job, I believe in the power of finding a vocation.