The Career Episode

So apparently the question, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" (a Spice Girl, duh...) is not just for second grade term papers.

It's for students. It's for young professionals. It's for old professionals. It's for parents, teachers, the unemployed and the disaffected. We're all asking ourselves and each other, "What are we going to do?"

This question is stressful for us at this juncture in our lives. We're in college, and we love it. We love the parties, we love the people, we love that we can wear nike shorts and an over sized t-shirt to class every day and nobody questions our innate fashion sense. Our classes are okay. Sometimes they're stressful, sometimes they're boring, but most of the time they aren't at the top of our list of priorities. We envision a vague future in which we will magically develop an aptitude for a vaguely defined skill-set and live happily ever after. We sense that we'll make lots of money, or that we'll marry well. We anticipate families, houses, cars, high-powered careers, luxe house-wife statuses and complete and utter satisfaction. It is this inherent belief in our pending happiness which enables us to attend French class every day or finish our O-chem homework.

But what if the fairy tale doesn't play out?

What if we graduate and join the 2 million college graduates in the US who are unemployed?

There goes the car, the career, the vaguely idyllic life we had planned for ourselves. The reality is, it could happen to anyone. And it does, judging by the Christian Louboutin-clad woman we saw working as a public defender at the Houston traffic court a few weeks ago. Now there's a girl with Cristal taste on a Keystone budget. (You go girl! Don't let the haters get you down!)

We're at that point where we have to start making actual decisions about where we're headed. We've taken classes, we've had internships, we've spent a few years "developing our minds" (a.k.a cramming for midterms so we can get a piece of a paper that attests to the fact that we are at least marginally competent.) SPOILER ALERT: This is supposed to be heading somewhere.

Who knew?

There are several things to consider. Yea, you've got a major, but if you're like Ashleigh, extensive knowledge of Platonic ideals and metaphysical theory isn't going to help you face your post-grad Neiman Marcus bill. What's a girl to do?

It's time to say the thing everyone is thinking, but nobody is supposed to say: we're in this for the cash.


Maybe it's horribly bourgeois of us to say so, but we're willing to take that risk. Yes, being blissfully happy philosophizing on Paris's left bank in a shabby vintage cashmere, living in a 6 story walk-up with 3 roommates, smoking thin cigarettes and eating one croissant per day sounds quaint...but couldn't I have done that without wasting 4 years of my life in an institution of higher learning?

This is where we must separate passion from ambition. You all know what we're talking about. Yea, that cute guy that plays guitar and wants to be a musician someday is precious, but we know you're going for the buttoned up Goldman Sachs intern who wants nothing less than to take the wealth management world by storm. If he plays guitar on the weekends, even better. Ambition is something that women find incredibly sexy in men. Well ladies, here's an insider tip: it works well for women, too.

We're grown up now. It's time to be honest with ourselves about our skills versus our hobbies. Yea, you may do makeup so well that you put Bobbi Brown to shame, but unless you want to work behind her counter at Saks for $12.50 an hour plus commission, you better figure out a way to translate your love of eyeshadow palettes into a marketable skill. Bobbi Brown didn't get where she is today because she's great with gel eyeliner.

We absolutely believe that any woman who really believes in what she is doing can make an acceptable living off of it. (With the possible exception of our token marshmallow friend. Honey, go get your highlights re-done, you just need to find yourself a husband.) It's just about being passionate about what you do, and being smart enough to convince someone to pay you for it. And if you're really into underwater basket weaving or opera singing...well, you may have to get what we like to call a "day job." If you have the drive and temerity to stick with what you love, good for you. We'll see you at the law firm by day, and we'll be there for your living room solo in that perfect soprano of yours by night.

So, our advice? Do what you love. If you want to write, write. If you want to cure people, go to med school. Don't worry that nobody will want to publish your book. Don't worry that Obama's health plan might make life hellacious for doctors everywhere. If you have to be a wall street sell-out and write your magnum opus at night, so be it. If you spend 15 years on med school because you can only go part time, so be it. Remember, your parents and advisers are not the ones who are going to be living your life. So take what they say with an open mind and then follow your instincts. A wise man (Ashleigh's dad) once said, "If you do a job you love, you will never work a day in your life."

Maybe we're just young and quixotic, but if you are reading this and are neither young nor quixotic, remember that you use to be at least one of these, and most likely both. And maybe you feel like you're living the grind every day because you became an engineer instead of a ballet dancer, or a lawyer instead of an artist. Or maybe you used to love your life as a pastry chef, but now you need something more (let's face it...we change our minds about what we're wearing out at least three times every thursday night; we're apt to change our minds at some point in the next 50 years).

We're saying its never too late to follow your dreams. We're saying that if you have the chance to take life by the longhorns right now, then do it. Anything can happen.

Just make sure you're not sacrificing the finer things in life if you don't have to. "Number of faux handbags owned" and "inner happiness" are inversely related.