What’s your dream job?
Surely you’ve been asked that before, or at least some kind of variation. Maybe it was the, “If you could do anything, what would it be?” or the, “If money wasn’t a question, where do you see yourself in five years?”
I consider these the classic, ironic questions every teenager to twenty-something must face, strictly as a right of passage. Or at least, that’s what society makes them feel like, anyway. You can’t grow up and become an adult before envisioning a life for yourself that you’ll never be able to attain. The dream job in said question is actually the dream life.
There’s more to it than the underlying meaning, though. The irony is the real head scratcher. The educators, the employers, and all those high school guidance counselors who told us to follow our dreams, that we could do anything we set our minds to, just to ask, seconds later, “But, what’s your dream job?”
I bought into it all, too. For as long as I can remember I told people I was going to be an English high school teacher, and I genuinely believed that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. This was back when I thought I would hit a certain age and suddenly become an adult; you know, the big transformation in your life that separates future-you from 16-year-old-you – the moment I now know never actually happens. Instead, your age just keeps inching on upwards as you feel less like an adult and more like the confused 16-year-old.
It was my grand life aspiration, the ultimate accomplishment of my life. I was going to mold the minds of future generations – do something that mattered. But more importantly, I was being realistic. I was going to attend university, become a more balanced, higher-educated individual, go to teacher’s college, get a job, and begin my life.
That’s what you’re supposed to do when you’re a high school student raking in the 90s, isn’t it?
You’re smart? Go to university, get a degree, and make a difference in the world. School isn’t for you? Get into the trades; the trades need people like you. Fall somewhere in between? Well, obviously a college diploma is calling your name.
Don’t feel left out. Society has a plan for everyone, and as we graduate through the ranks of kindergarten and elementary school and on to high school, that plan is the only thing we’re taught. That plan is the road paved for us, and we follow it, all while tacking onto that imaginary world so we’ll have an answer to, “But, what’s your dream job?”
For as long as I believed I was going to be an English teacher, my response was to be a sports journalist. They were side-by-side, reality-versus-unattainable dreams. The saddest part was that I actually believed in the unattainable part; that’s why I kept it in the dream category. I thought that’s how life worked. You plan realistic goals, a realistic career, and a realistic life, all while smiling every so often at that person you wish you could, but never would, be.
It’s funny how things work out, though. I chose to pursue an English Honours program at the University of Guelph rather than a Concurrent Education program geared specifically for those aspiring to be teachers. I figured if I was going to be a teacher, teacher’s college would still be there waiting in four years, and that left the pathway down the journalism avenue open, even if just a little bit. There was always that part of me that refused to close the door on the dream.
Maybe 17-year-old me somehow knew that in three years I’d find my spine and start going after what I really wanted in life, or maybe 17-year-old me was really just too scared to make a solid decision. Nevertheless, I thank 17-year-old me for that every day.
The summer before my third year of university, I took a jump, and I wasn’t even really sure what I was jumping into. I recognized that becoming a teacher would be settling, and I wasn’t okay with that. I interviewed for an internship – which has given me some of the best experiences in the world I thought belonged to the “unattainable dream” – and started volunteering for The Ontarion sports section regularly. Beyond that, I simply started to believe that it was possible to bring the world of realistic plans and the dream job together.
Eight months later, I was hired as the Sports & Health section editor, had been published in Maclean’s magazine, and had unlocked doorways I never thought existed.
To say I’ve conquered the dream would be a lie, and quite frankly, I know I have a long way to go. But when it comes down to it, the mere attempt is often satisfactory enough. How hypocritical, right? I ramble on about going after what you want, and now I’m settling for the attempt.
Paving the path you want to take, however, is not settling. I’ve come to realize that I might not land the big job at the big newspaper that has me traveling from sporting event to sporting event, and I might not end up working in sports at all. But, on the other hand, maybe I will.
In the short amount of time that I’ve been chasing down the dream, I’ve realized that the chase will lead you towards other aspirations and goals that you would have never had otherwise. Chasing down the dream isn’t about attainment; no, it’s about becoming the person you want to be. It’s about the journey, not the destination – isn’t that what they say, after all?
A twenty-something chasing down a dream sounds about as cliché as cliché gets. It’s probably one of the examples used for the definition of the word, and I’m completely fine with that. When I tell people that I think it’s possible to work for a living and enjoy what you do, I’m told the usual: I’m naive, too young to understand, and that I’ve been sheltered by the ways of student life.
Maybe I am all of those things; but when somebody asks, “What’s your dream job?” my answer doesn’t change, and I strive every day for it to never change. I don’t think that’s such a bad, or impossible, aspiration.
I only hope that, when you’re faced with life’s dreadful rite of passage, you’re lucky enough to have your reality and dream line up.
That’s the ultimate goal in life.