For those curious if the University of Michigan will continue to annoy Michiganders, the answer is yes.
Their latest piece of pseudo-intellectual research, according to AnnArbor.com, is a work on prospective job growth in Washtenaw County; at least its theoretically useful pseudo-intellectual research.
The research was based in part from a Wall Street Journal ranking of 200 jobs from “best” to “worst.” The basic criteria for the rankings were pay rate, education requirements and how benefiting the jobs were to the local community.
Uh-huh. At the risk of writing another pithy article, who cares?
There is more to life than 10 years of schooling and a paycheck. A career is an important part of your life. Why waste time going after arbitrary definitions like “best” or “worst” when you could do something you actually like doing?
Life sucks as it is, there’s no need to add to that misery by getting up every day and thinking “Oy, I hate my job. Why, oh why must I do this every day?”
If it’s just a job, you’re doing it for the paycheck. If it’s a career though, you have a problem.
At some point in life each and every person must come to terms with the fact that it’s difficult to make a living flipping burgers and stacking boxes in the backroom.
“But if I don’t do it, who will?” you might ask. The neighbor’s teenage kid, that’s who.
As I said, there is a difference between a job and a career, and one needs to enjoy his or her career in order
to have a better life. It might sound trivial, as a person’s career doesn’t define them, but it is a major aspect of his or her life, so shouldn’t it be something worth getting up for in the morning?
Perhaps I’m letting my youth and ignorance show in my hopeless optimism that life does not have to suck. Sue me; it keeps me from hanging myself.
Confucius said “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Call it lazy, call it optimistic, call it whatever you want. It is the wisdom of a dead guy and in my experience dead people tend to be pretty wise. The ones we remember, anyway. They said the stuff people consider worth remembering.
That’s not to say jobs aren’t important. Experience has to come from somewhere. Education and pay are important, too. They aren’t everything, though.
If you’re in your 20s and groan at the thought of getting up and going to work, congratulations, you’re an adult. If you’re in your thirties and groan at the thought of getting up and going to work, you might have a problem.
It doesn’t matter what other people think of you and your career. If it’s legal and you can get up every day and look forward to your job, then you’ve done something right.
Life takes so much from people, and leaves you with so little before it takes you too. You might as well enjoy earning money while you’re living. You’re going to be working for most of your life anyway, and it’s going to take up a lot of your day, so you should have some fun while you’re at it. Besides, how many of us would like to not have to get up everyday and work?
