The Pursuit of Happiness
“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
—Theodore Roosevelt
During this time of changes in my life, from moving to our first home to switching to full time ministry at the parish, I thought it relevant to take some time to talk about why I decided to use my business degree to work at the Church. I’ve worked a lot of different jobs, from carnie, to retail, to food service, to corporate, to sales and many in between. Unfortunately despite really enjoying a lot of the people I was working with, I never felt fulfilled by the job I was doing. In some cases I outright loathed what I did. I felt like a sellout, but I’d taken the time to get this business degree so I thought I needed to use it and do something in the business world. It was during a conversation with Deacon Mike that he proposed a revolutionary idea to me. I had asked to talk to him because I felt like I was spinning my wheels and needed some direction. He gave me a bit of a talk about his story and journey and said to me “Us guys always think that we need to make a lot of money and then once we have a big savings account and we get older, then we can do the things that make us happy and fulfilled. So we make ourselves miserable and make a lot of money doing it, but by the time we get to the point where we have time to do it, we’re too old, or too tired or we never stop being too busy. So why don’t you try doing something that you’re passionate about and let God worry about the money?” It was a game changer for me. With his help I was able to get the job at the parish that I have now, and I’ve never enjoyed a job more than this! It has been a struggle in a lot of ways, between starting as part time while also teaching, to dealing with changing expectations and many other challenges. Despite these things, I love what I do! I get to have a positive impact on my community, make a difference in the lives of the parishioners, and use my gifts that God has given me!
Another reason I wanted to talk about this topic was I recently reconnected with a former coworker of mine from my time in sales. Bree and I were on the same team for a while and even when the teams got moved around we still were friendly. I was really sad to hear that she had left the job, but a couple weeks ago I saw her on instagram and decided to see how she was doing. It was then when she told me a really great story about her following her passions. Essentially she had joined the company right after college, graduating from UofM with an English degree. She had known her entire life that she wanted to be an artist but never knew how to transition from a dream to a reality. Whenever she mentioned it to anyone, she was faced with the impracticality of the whole thing so she set it on the back burner for a bit. However, once she graduated and started at a corporate gig, Bree knew it was time to make the change. She absolutely loathed the corporate world and no matter how hard she tried to like it, there was no amount of convincing and no monetary prospect that made it even bearable for her. At heart she was still an artist and wanted to do something with it, but needed something to push her to take action.
What really pushed her to the point of actually pursuing it was, ironically enough, intense depression and anxiety. Working a job that felt so uncomfortable and trapping, it felt as though leaving wasn't an option so Bree figured she needed to go back to making some kind of art to dampen those feelings. Long story short, one thing led to another and she found herself tattooing. However, it was extremely difficult to have a 3 hour commute round trip to work, have a full time job, and practice tattooing. So one day Bree prayed on it and felt she needed to leave that 9-5. Even though it made essentially no sense, it just felt it was what needed to be done. The same day she went to quit, she actually ended up getting let go. Bree doubled down and refused to look for another job because she was determined to make her art work. She wanted it as a full time job so she treated it as one and in 7 months it had become full time! @Breezy_tats (Instagram) took some time to build but her story became an inspiration to me so I just had to include it!
What I want to emphasize is despite Bree’s story and mine, working a corporate job or a 9-5 or whatever you’re doing doesn’t mean it’s evil or unfulfilling. What I am saying is that for us it became about what made us fulfilled and happy with ourselves. If your job is providing that sense of fulfillment then you’re ahead of the game! I just wanted to propose some alternatives and to ask the question, what if you did something you’re passionate about? Sorry this one was a bit longer than in the past but I wanted to share my story and Bree’s to give two accounts of pursuing your passions! Feel free to comment about how you’re pursuing your passions whether professionally or just something on the side, whatever it is, we’d love to hear about it!
God Bless,
Andrew (The Kurtlocker)
