I never want to work a day in my life. I don’t want to find
a job. I don’t want to awake each morning bemoaning the drudgery of my
not-exactly-chosen profession. I do not ever want to walk into a room of
relative strangers that I barely know and do my best to avoid any interaction
with them Yes, it is true I don’t want a job. I want to play and just happen to get paid for it.
You might think me mad. You might think this idealistic view
on life is childish or foolish, unrealistic or impractical. You might mumble to
yourself “He is a French Major after all.” Or perhaps you might believe that my
view on life has been shaped by some serial abuse of caffeine. Some older and
wiser might say that “life is a game and you have to win, you don’t win by
playing around.” I’ve heard people say over and over again, when you grow up
you have to get a real job. What does that mean? If getting a real job means
I’ll be miserable, I say no thanks.
Growing up I often heard a religious ideology spoken, “Men
are that they might have joy.” In other words, our entire existence is about
happiness, and not just fleeting momentary happiness but joy, a lasting
contentment and bliss. This concept hasn’t been lost to the greatest minds of
our world. The founding fathers of this nation included the pursuit of
happiness in the declaration of independence as a basic motivation for our dissension
from the British Empire. Maslow first began to address to study of happiness in
psychology around the mid-twentieth century as he developed his revolutionary
table of needs. Einstein found that the violin, reading, and not wearing socks
brought him simple joys on a daily basis and furthered his work. It is said
that he first began to formulate his theory of relativity while playing a
concerto barefoot in his living room.
But what brings us this joy? What allows each individual to rise above the mundane and
benign existence? Is it work? Is it a career? I believe that we find true happiness when live each moment
to the fullest seeking out that spark of life that ignites our true
passion. I believe we find joy
when we fail in the attempt to achieve something greater than us only to
discover not that our efforts were in vain but that we were right on target and
just needed to shoot a bit further. I believe that we find our passion as we
continually take risks knowing that failure will, in the end, catch up to us
but that failure will be provide a sweet moment of nirvana when we realize
that our shortcomings are in fact
only stepping stones on a journey towards joy.
I have failed all too often in life. In fact I have had to
accept my own laziness and inability to perform at par more often than I care
to admit. For many of you, namely the uber driven, that kind of failure is
simply unacceptable. I envy your drive for perfection, at least that variety of
perfection. For me it has been a glorious learning process or perhaps even an
unlearning process. I certainly don’t have the highest GPA in the room, frankly
it’s only mediocre at best. I don’t have the greatest study habits either. I
happened to score rather well on my IQ test as a young boy and began to presume
that I should simply get by based upon my evident superior intellect and killer
good looks.
I have bounced from one end of the employment spectrum to
the next with rich enthusiasm for the experience that each new venture would
provide. The list is long. I have
been an assembly line worker, a lawn maintenance guy, an arby’s drive through
operator, a missionary, an ice cream machine repair man, a caterer, a personal
assistant, an executive assistant, and administrative assistant and an office
assistant. I have worked in social services, retail, call centers, been a
master barista and a certified designated trainer server. I have been a translator
and interpreter a tutor and a manny. I have been a teacher, a facilitator and a
program director. I have been a manager, a grunt, a supervisor, a business
owner and even a licensed general contractor. I have worked with Robert
Redford, Nick Nolte, and Allen Cummings, Margret Cho and Paris Hilton. I have
built a winery, planned lavish weddings, and even held a license as a wedding
officiant. I have been a dog breeder and trainer. I have been a behaviorist, a
therapist and seriously ventured into foster parenting. . I have been a dancer,
an actor, a funeral singer, a church chorister., and youth leader. I have
worked with the air force, the navy, the army, the marines and the coast guard.
I am an eagle scout and I still go to summer camp every year. I have traveled through Europe, Africa,
the United States and walked along the Great Wall of China, trod along the
beaches of the Caribbean, and attended conferences at the United Nations in
Geneva. I have lived a million lives in the attempt to find the one or at least
the few that matter most to me.
I don’t say any of this to brag or boast. Many of these
adventures were phenomenal learning experiences and many were abysmal displays
of my young and foolish heart and lack of experience. The greatest lesson that I have learned is that joy is the greatest ambition of them
all. I don’t need things I need to
continue to experience life and all its wonders. I need to see, touch, feel,
and live the adventures of this great race called humanity and embrace the imperfection
and the beauty of it all. I have come to learn that finding joy is not a matter
of where I am or who I am
surrounded by or the things that I have my joy is completely dependant upon my
own frame of mind and nothing more. I am the author of my destiny and my
ecstasy.
I was just 19 when I first went to live on my own in a
foreign country with little independent experience to build upon. I was the
eldest in my family and therefore I had certain expectations. I learned very
quickly that my new housemates were not to keen on following my orders, nor
were they as clean as my mother had always taught me to be. The culture was
drastically different and the experience was ruined by my image of what it
should be. I went to my mentor and begged him to let me go home. I had had
enough and this three week experience was sufficient, I would be more than
content to return to my manageable routine back in sunny southern California. He starred at me. He was a rough,
abrupt, and frank rancher from northern Arizona. He called things the way he
saw them and didn’t care too much about feelings or tact. He stood about the
same height as me but had the built of man that had been throwing hay bails his
whole life. He was intimidating. But when he spoke I listened.
“Are you happy?” He asked me. I looked back at him
quizzically unsure if he had heard what I had just said about my thus far
miserable experience. I responded, “Well, of course not.” As if his question made no sense
whatsoever, which it didn’t, at the time. He waited and moment, contemplated
his response, then reached out his hand with his thick and callused fingers. I
shook his hand, or rather he squeezed the very life out of my teenage grip. He
held on and said, “Then change it, change your attitude.”
I’m fairly certain I rolled my eyes, exhaled like an
irreverent teenager, then slouched my shoulders as if to say, “I really want to
stomp my feet right now and scream because I’m not getting my way but I’ve only
recently learned that’s inappropriate.” I followed him with my gaze as he
walked out of the room. Just before he exited he said, “The aim of this life is
to find happiness, all other things are but a means to this end.” I don’t know
if he was quoting someone but it’s been nearly 15 years since that moment and
then lesson has never been more relevant than right now. He helped me shape an outlook on life
that has led me to this very place and I am the man that I am today because of
that adolescent moment in my own life history.
In my own pursuit of happiness I have come to find my own
greatest asset is my infinitely creative mind. I have the capacity to be or do
anything I set my mind to. I’m nothing exceptional. I’m no different than any
of you. I am perhaps even less adept than some of you are at being this sort of
chameleon in life. However, my creativity has afforded me some of my most fond
memories but it has also helped me to find my passion in life and in turn
discover joy.
So back to that whole “I’m never going to get a job” thing.
I believe that a job is something that is mindless, and effortless, but drains
you of everything that brings joy. A job is monotonous, painful, and boring. I
understand that there are many “jobs” that must be done that might actually be
work. I don’t particularly enjoy cleaning my car but it’s a job I have to do.
My friend, Marcus, on the other hand finds great satisfaction in cleaning and
detailing his car at least weekly. He will spend hours at a time with nothing
more than armorall and a q-tip in hand going over ever seam and crevice in his
vehicle ensuring that not a spec of dust, nor crumb of mcdonald’s chicken
mcnuggets lie anywhere in that vehicle. Then he will painstakingly wash out the
engine and shine the chrome therein. I can honestly say his vehicle looks like
something that could be in a Las Vegas show room. Marcus, loves his work.
Detailing cars is what he does for fun and he happens to get paid for it too. Nothing
brings him greater joy than his emaculate vehicle.
About 50 years ago a young boy sat in a music classroom in
Liverpool. Paul and his mate George we’re like any other mischevious
twelve-year-olds, there wasn’t much exceptional about who they were, especially
in the mind of the absent instructor. He would walk into the lecture each week
ready to impress the morays of classical music upon their young minds. He’d
place the grammaphone at the head of the classroom and put on a record of
Brahms or Mozart, perhaps even Wagner or Puccini, then leave the room to go
smoke a bit. There was no instruction there and the values of music were
forgotten. As soon as their teacher left the classroom the boys would bring out
the cigarettes and paying cards, turn off the music, and enjoy the break. It
wasn’t until about 4 years later that the two boys found something in music
that they had never before heard in that classroom. Paul McCartney and George
Harrisson were never seen as any sort of music prodigy but they soon join
forces with a few other mates and changed the face of music in the world as the
Beatles. Both men are still in their prime, filled with the joy that their
passion for music brings them. And they happen to be worth millions.
There are as many personalities and career options in the
world as there are people. This world takes all kinds of people. So why then to
we force ourselves into the social norms that obstruct and limit our potential?
Why do we feel it necessary to conform to the wishes of the few and become a
member of the drones of many that are working day to day at something that only
pays the bills?
Each and everyone one of will be asked time and time again,
“so now what? “ You’re a college graduate, what are you going to do with a
French Major? A degree in
philosophy or art? What kind of job will you get with a masters in social work?
You know they don’t make very much money, right? What engineering firms have
you applied to? You got a degree in General Studies? What does that even
mean? Well the answer is simple.
Dream and dream big. Dreaming enables the mind to wonder and
explore possibilities. Dreaming leads to inspiring movements of lasting impact.
Dreaming is a wish, a hope, a longing that someday you will make reality. So
dream of a better solution to the economic crisis. Dream of a better method to
address social change. Dream of a more effective technology to improve
education. Dream of the perfect tale to inspire good. Dream of the idea that
will change the world we live in. Dream of all that brings you joy and pursue
that dream in all that you do. Live your dreams
I’m going to do what I’ve always done. I’m going to keep
trying to find joy and for every failure I will embrace the learning experience
and do my best to seek happiness. I will combine my love of theatre, music and
performing with my passion for learning and education. Yes you can teach
geometry, physics, and art on a stage. Yes you can instill the value of
creativity through the application of chemistry and biology. I will dream in
order to find joy and happiness each and every day.
Men and women through out our history have dreamt of the
world we would one day live in. We live in that world. We live in a world where
vehicles fly. They fly in the sky, 6 miles in the sky. We walked in space. We
live in a world where polio, small pox, malaria, chicken pox, yellow fever, and
many other disease are so close to eradication it is palpable. We live in a
world where you can electronically send and receive the entire text of the holy
bible, the full HD version of Avatar and even the entire musical library of
Michael Jackson in a matter of minutes. That same amount of information,
approximately 6 gigabytes can fit on a tiny USB drive in your pocket. Five
gigabytes of electronic storage used to require an entire room full of
computers and servers. Today artists, photographers, writers and poets are
doing more, with greater ease, getting greater recognition, and making more
innovations then their counterparts even 50 years ago even thought possible.
This world is changing because people are dreaming of happiness and pursuing that
which brings them joy. Dreams, joy, happiness… these are the things that
motivated those that have gone before. Dreams, joy, happiness, this is what
will empower our generation to make this life worth living and to change the
ways of the past in the hope of a brighter future.
Eleanor Roosevelt said that “The future belongs to those
that believe in the beauty of their dreams.” So, my peers, my friends… DREAM
ON! FIND JOY! Live the life that you’ve imagined. Find the life that brings you
the greatest happiness and live it. Never work a day in your life again but vow
to sweat and muscle, strive and labor your way through every waking moment that
in that moment you will dine joy and happiness that through that labor your
dreams will come true. If you
follow your heart you will find that the opportunities will unfold and that
existence you have pursued will bring you happiness, success, and joy – true
lasting, lifelong joy.
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