Monday, December 16, 2013

Thoughts of an recently-busy, oft-overprivileged yuppie, or Further proof that my dad cloned himself

"Perhaps I am more than usually jealous with respect to my freedom. I feel that my connection with and obligation to society are still very slight and transient. Those slight labors which afford me a livelihood, and by which it is allowed that I am to some extent serviceable to my contemporaries, are as yet commonly a pleasure to me, and I am not often reminded that they are a necessity. So far I am successful. But I foresee that if my wants should be much increased, the labor required to supply them would become a drudgery. If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of pottage."
                     ~Henry David Thoreau,  Life Without Principle

Reading Thoreau makes me feel like less of a generation-Y idealist unwilling to settle down and get a real job and more like a generation-Y idealist in pursuit of a worthy life. Not that there's anything wrong with working hard–I suppose all good things that exist are the result of hard work–but the idea of sacrificing a joyful life for money to provide for an expensive one terrifies me.

I was going to make this long and thoughtful, but that's really all I have to say on the subject, plus I just realized that I actually ended up posting my failed attempts at a good analysis of this semester last month.  I don't think all people who make a lot of money are selling their soul, a lot of people are passionate for things that compensate well. I'm fairly lucky in this regard actually.  While I'm not passionate for anesthesiology, there are a lot of people willing to pay scientists to explore the world, and that's a pretty good gig.

Maybe people who have actually pursued careers will be able to inform my opinions on this, but for now I'll stick with this. I've had a lot of examples in my life of people for whom a career is about so much more than a paycheck.

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