In past blog posts, I’ve talked about the importance of goals, dreams, and aspirations, of having somewhere to aim. I think it’s important to have a sense of direction. While I know I won’t achieve every one of my goals, and while most of my goals, over time, will change, they keep me moving, discovering, and experiencing new things.
One way in which I’ve set goals my whole life is by having role models, a different one for every stage of my life (I’ll call them “career crushes”). While my role models have ranged from family friends to the famous, from athletes to scientists, there’s a common thread between each of them. I tend to admire my role models not just for their line of work, but for the grace with which I see them weave together their career, life, and passions. Each of my role models has embodied some kind of value to which I aspire.
Career Crush #1. I’m seven years old, and I’m obsessed with JK Rowling. I’ve been reading her books for two years already and I know that I want to do what she does. That is, create entire worlds. When I read Harry Potter, I feel transported somewhere else. As a kid with an imagination so vivid that it spills over into my perception of the real world, I want to be able to pull other people into a world of my creation. While I’m beginning to understand that magic like Harry uses isn’t actually real, JK Rowling’s ability to use words to create a new animal or spell so vivid that I can see it in my head seems like another kind of magic, one that I want to master.
Little me… erm… Hermione
Career Crush #2. I’m fifteen, and all I want to be is my assistant Cross Country Coach, Jenn Shelton. Accompanying us on runs, she tells us all about how she studied poetry at a prestigious university, got tired of that, then left to live life moment to moment and pursue adventure.
As a strung-out, type-A high school student desperate for a 4.0, I was fascinated by the idea that you could just leave something making you unhappy. It seemed dangerous, but so enticing. Jenn tells us about how after tiring of competing as a surfer, she got back into running and like with everything she pursued in life, went for it with gusto and a great sense of humor. We hear her stories of ordering Pizza Hut in the middle of a 100-mile race, hallucinating with fatigue and losing the trail in her attempt to break the world record for running the 273-mile John Muir trail, and the infamous story of the ultra-marathon she and her friends completed the day after eating an entire pan of jalapeno mac-and-cheese. She’s kind to me and everyone on the team, always tries to downplay her accomplishments, and promises that she’ll only run as long as she enjoys it. It’s not so much that I want to be a professional runner (although I would happily take that). I just want Jenn’s attitude towards life.
Career Crush #3. I’m seventeen, and I’m all about setting achievable goals. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not about to leave school to become a professional anything, and my new career crushes are family friends Tim and Leslie. They are doctors at the rural health clinic “La Clinica,” and I’m currently shadowing Tim. He’s only allowed 15 minutes per patient, but he’s animated and friendly as he rushes between an old woman, who he clearly knows well, joking around with her in spanish, and a little girl with asthma, who he instructs to “breathe like she’s blowing out all the candles on a cake” during her breath test. Leslie’s there as well. At the end of Thursday they go home together for the weekend. Leslie and Tim share a job, but they’ve worked it out so that they complete their hours at the same time. On the weekends, Leslie goes on long runs and Tim goes snowboarding. Their life epitomizes a balance between hard, meaningful work and family and relaxation that inspires me with excitement for the “real world”.
Career Crush #4. I’m a sophomore at Scripps and until recently, I’ve felt a little lost. I’ve given up on becoming a doctor, because I realized that the vast majority of students and doctors I meet do not have Leslie and Tim’s work life balance. But recently, I’ve found a new career crush: Barbara Kingsolver, a writer, bringing me full circle to my days of idolizing JK Rowling (and let’s be honest, I never stopped idolizing her). Barbara Kingsolver touched something in me with her poetic words describing science and nature. I’d never realized that you could use words in a way that could transform science into something so beautiful. Plus, I knew that Kingsolver had a PhD in biology, and moved between Arizona and an organic farm her family runs in West Virginia. Her life for me had elements of both contradiction and the balance I sought. Suddenly, I’m awoken from my indecision, inspired to find a middle ground between my love for science and my lifelong love for words and imaginary worlds.
In the future, I don’t know where I’ll end up. I could still be a writer, a doctor, or a PhD (I’m just going to venture and say I’m not likely to become a professional ultra-runner). I guess I could even be all three, although that would involve a lot of school. But there’s value in reflecting on who I’ve looked up to, and the values I saw lived out in their careers. The people I’ve looked up to are creative, and a little crazy (in the case of Jenn, at least). They have ventured off the beaten path, and taken some risks. They work for themselves, but their careers do something that I see as valuable for the world, whether that’s by weaving stories, coaching teenagers, or healing people.