As part of a Simple Living workshop I am a part of, we have been delving into various aspects of life that do or do not allow us to attain a more simple, happy way of existence. It is a 5 week workshop, meeting every Wednesday at a neighborhood church with people of various backgrounds, old and young, religious and atheist, married and single, working and retired. Our topic last week focused on the meaning of work and from what was said is what I wish to ponder.
My entire life my parents have wanted me to become a physician, so I promptly rebelled against them, opting to try to get into the legal profession. It wasn't until I went to India one summer during college did I feel truly compelled to join the medical profession. My aunt introduced me to a doctor in Bangalore, and I followed other doctors at the hospital he worked at, but one day he decided to take me to a rural town outside Bangalore. There was one government hospital that serviced the ONE MILLION people around it, and when I met the hospital's director, he was so proud of his hospital, working with limited resources and professionals, that was thriving. Thriving was a relative term; patients were sleeping in the hallways, roaches were running down the corridors, and the anesthesiologist showed up maybe 3 days a week, often inebriated, but it was better than nothing at all. The most moving was going into the Obstetrics "ward". The smell was noxious, and bloody sheets lay in the corner. Human suffering was all around me and I felt helpless, and right then the true passion of doing medicine hit me full force. Just because I was helpless did not mean I always needed to be.
I have never expected everyone around me to have the same compelling stories or the same motives for going into medical school, but for a very long time it has irked me that people went into the medical profession for monetary reasons alone. I feel that it in some way it denigrated what I wanted to do with my life. What I realized at last week's meeting was that it was all right if people go into a profession for less than the "right" reasons, because they will still manage to make a difference in people's lives. Maybe the difference just lies in our perceptions of what we do? I will always be overjoyed by being to help people, and for others it might always remain "just a job", and I suppose that's their loss.
As part of our readings, Bronson stresses that wanting to live your dream is important, but if a person isn't sure what that is, it's alright to pursue multiple things. A Hollywood exec hates her life, so attempts to go to medical school, but hates that too. Her life is not over, even though that's what many people would think. The idea that once you go to school for something you must stick with it forever is archaic. America offers us the mobility and opportunities (and federal funding) to pursue that degree in Sociology we might have always wanted. I guess more people need to be told they can do what they like, that having a job can be something to get excited about, because life can be more fulfilling than a paycheck.
The importance of money is discussed as well. Does money make people happy? Well, to a degree, yes. Poverty is never something to be excited about, but after a certain amount, it stops being about feeding one's self and making sure you have a roof over your head, and about what next big fancy thing you can buy, and things in a general sense have not been proven to make people overly happy, except in the short-term. Cultivating relationships, searching to find those things that bring peace to our lives, seeing the world and being blissfully aware, those are things money cannot buy, but often those are things not talked about either.
More people need to be told it's okay to pursue something further, something great enough to live for, to be proud of, to really want to do. As long as you are able to make ends meet and not living in a homeless shelter, the highest salary should not always be of first concern, but contentment and happiness instead. So congratulations to all of those who have found, and for all those still looking? Good luck, I'm on your side.
Bronson, Po. "What Should I Do With My Life?" Fast Company 2003. Print.
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