career

I think that after graduation, there is this implicit assumption that your job is going to be the center of your life, and everything else will evolve around that. It might be uncomfortable hearing it said out loud, but that doesn't necessarily make it any less true. I think for a lot of us, our expectations conform to this idea. Weekends are a break from work (unless you're an i-banker). Sunday might be church time. Getting home from work early is a luxury. You carve out time from work to take a vacation. You're happy when you're doing well at work, devastated when you get passed up on a promotion. You measure yourself against others by the type of work you do, and work defines you more than you'd like to admit.

And all of that is fine. I just didn't realize that I naturally assumed that work was going to be that large a part of my life... until it wasn't. In another life, I would be working for some private tech company, getting home at 7pm or later, and happy with the fact that I'm working on some really cool project. Even when I got home, I'd probably be thinking about this project, coming up with new ideas. I'd probably think about promotions, salaries, stock options, and my place in the company. But in the government? Work is completely secondary. Weekdays are a slight disturbance in my week. Oh, it's Monday? Okay lets go to work really quick and after that I can get on with the rest of my life. It's a weird feeling, and one that I didn't really expect. But I sort of like it? Maybe I'm getting old.

Maybe it's okay for work to be the center of your life, if you're passionate about the work you're doing? But maybe it's also okay for work to be completely secondary to what you're really passionate about doing.