This either/or approach works great for talk radio, but not so well for everyday life. Who says you can't have a paying job and pursue a passion on the side? Why even suggest that a dream should be deferred?The real question is this: Should young people who've just graduated from college be expected to know what their calling is? I don't think so.
As New York Times op-ed columnist David Brooks (photo below) writes in a piece titled It’s Not About You:
[V]ery few people at age 22 or 24 can take an inward journey and come out having discovered a developed self. Most successful young people don’t look inside and plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life.That’s certainly what happened to me with Defying Gravity. I was looking for a way to inspire my community college students to stay in school and stick with their dreams. I saw a problem--a high drop-out rate--and discovered a calling. Mind you, I was in my forties at the time, not my twenties.
Brooks ends by saying, “The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.” Along the way, I've discovered that, too.
Credits: Brian Lehrer photo: MarcoAntonio.com. David Brooks photo: Josh Haner/NYT
