Clearin' the Cobwebs

I am reading, perhaps, the most important book I have ever read. It's not a textook for a class and it's not a work of ficiton. It's called "Finding the Open Road," and it reads a little like a self-help book. It's aimed at us graduating college kids and how we are supposed to deal with that next step. I'm usually not a big fan of these kinds of books; the kinds of books that pick a gimmick of sorts, usually revolving around bettering yourself, and then pound it in throughout its pages. For me, life usually resumes as normal when I finally put the book down.

Frequently, a book like that revolves around one guy telling you to not listen to anyone else but yourself. Telling you how to make your life better, more fulfilling, more successful, and so on. The irony in that, of course, is that you end up conforming to the guy telling you to not conform. He just posits a new set of guidelines to live your life by; that is, his guidelines.

This book is different. The authors themselves actually write very little in the book. Those lazy bums. The whole book is actually one long interview between the authors and various people they met on their quest to discover their unique path. I'm only about one-hundred pages in, but so far it's been quite stellar. Wide-ranging cavalcades of successful people tell stories featuring incredibly different routes. No two are the same. Regardless, all are happy doing what they are doing in their own way, and none of them knew what this happiness was right out of the gate.

One quote in particular they cite is from Thoreau. It goes "Most Men Lead Lives of Quiet Desperation." Essentially, most men go through life doing something they hate; they do what is safe, secure, and stamped with society's approval. Sure, they have a house, a dog, 2.5 kids, and a nice car. Yes they have job security and a nice pension waiting for them at 65. But many aren't doing what they love. Quietly, they are unhappy.

That quote really struck me, because I can see myself fitting in that category. Sure, I don't have all the pinnings of a modern, grown, quietly desperate man (Thank God!), but I feel its seed has been planted. I went to college because that's what I was supposed to do. I didn't have a burning desire to go to college (do they have a cream for that burning sensation?), but I never even considered anything else. Now that I've slogged through four years of classes, papers, and tests, I'm faced with taking that next step. People ask if Graduate or Law School is on my radar. I lie to them and say I'm considering it. I lie to myself and say I'm considering it. But honestly, I'm not entertaning either option. Neither are a right fit for me. I'll be the first to admit I don't know a lot of things. But one thing I do know is that I have no interest in furthering my Undergraduate Degree.

Where does that leave me, then? Well, one man interviewed was Mike Lazzo, senior Vice President of Programming for Cartoon Network. He mentions how he would slog through his job during the day and then do what he really loved at night, which was watching, thinking, discussing, and debating all things TV. He eventually sought a job so he could be around TV all day. He didn't care what he did exactly, so long as he was around it. When I read that, I immediately related. Not about the TV part, but the surviving the day part. I get through class in the day so afterward I can do what I love to do.

And what, exactly, is that? Look at this blog and what I usually like to write about. Maybe the fog has been lifted just a bit for me.