Happy Thanksgiving!
I am thankful that I did not have to make a single latte today! Our shop's open 365 days a year, and since I'll be flying home for a few days at Christmas, I assumed I would've had to put in some holiday-time today. But by some stroke of a miracle, I was off!
I'm also thankful that I do work tomorrow. I don't always have the best attitude about my job. It pains me to admit that more often than not, I'm a bit embarrassed and bummed about the fact that I work at a coffee shop when my friends have been doing everything from grad school and med school to youth pastoring and teaching since graduation. I felt useful and productive as an AmeriCorps member last year, but since my term of service ended a few months ago, I can't help but feel like I've taken a few steps back.
I spent Thanksgiving with my 'DC family' (my cousin and her husband and my aunt and uncle). Every year, they join forces with their besties up in Baltimore for Thanksgiving festivities. It was a mixed bag of guests - my aunt and uncle's friends, their grown children and some grandparents thrown in for good measure. Basically, a lot of people I didn't know.
It's stupid, but all day I had been kind of dreading the question that ultimately crops up as you move through the gamut of make-your-acquantiance niceties: 'So, what do you do?'
I found myself almost making apologies for what I deemed an unsuitable use of my time: 'Welllllll....I'm kind of in-between things right now. I moved out here to do AmeriCorps after college...that recently ended and I'm looking for a job in non-profits now....but I'm just working at a coffee shop in the meantime.'
I'm lame. I know.
But my 'DC family' and all their friends are so cool- my uncle's a chemist, my aunt's a librarian, my cousin's in public health. And of the 'people I didn't know': one was a horse-vet, one was a doctor, another was an attorney...and one was super-cute and little and 90 years old! They were mostly all in their mid- to late-twenties (except for the cute 90-year-old), and I was intimidated.
In light of Thanksgiving, I've been thinking about something G. K. Chesterton wrote: 'There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.'
This quote is significant on a lot of different levels:
Here's a easy one- all the crazies who have been lining up since this morning outside of Best Buy in order to partake in the Black Friday madness. It's like, why?
Or - how I spent the day surrounded by DC professionals young and old and in-between. I don't know much about the crew I just met tonight, but the general mindset I've witnessed in their contemporaries out here over the past year, is one centered on amassing 'more and more' power, wealth and prestige.
And then - I'm embarrassed by my job? I should really be embarrassed by the amount of clothes I have in my closet or the mass of things I have cluttering up my room.
That last part - 'the other is to desire less' - this applies to material things (duh), but when I was thinking about my life, the thing that I desire the most right now is meaningful employment. I think it's okay that we want things (especially 'good' things like a job we can care about) so long as there's balance. But sometimes, I think that I desire a different job to an unproductive degree. I'm doing all the right things in the job-hunt realm, so it'll happen when it happens - letting it consume my thoughts and attitude won't speed up the timeline. Being a barista just has to be enough for now, and I have to be okay and even thankful for that!
So, this Thanksgiving I am thankful (in addition to all the blessings of health, home, family, friends, etc) for my job.
Later,
Lise
I am thankful that I did not have to make a single latte today! Our shop's open 365 days a year, and since I'll be flying home for a few days at Christmas, I assumed I would've had to put in some holiday-time today. But by some stroke of a miracle, I was off!
I'm also thankful that I do work tomorrow. I don't always have the best attitude about my job. It pains me to admit that more often than not, I'm a bit embarrassed and bummed about the fact that I work at a coffee shop when my friends have been doing everything from grad school and med school to youth pastoring and teaching since graduation. I felt useful and productive as an AmeriCorps member last year, but since my term of service ended a few months ago, I can't help but feel like I've taken a few steps back.
I spent Thanksgiving with my 'DC family' (my cousin and her husband and my aunt and uncle). Every year, they join forces with their besties up in Baltimore for Thanksgiving festivities. It was a mixed bag of guests - my aunt and uncle's friends, their grown children and some grandparents thrown in for good measure. Basically, a lot of people I didn't know.
It's stupid, but all day I had been kind of dreading the question that ultimately crops up as you move through the gamut of make-your-acquantiance niceties: 'So, what do you do?'
I found myself almost making apologies for what I deemed an unsuitable use of my time: 'Welllllll....I'm kind of in-between things right now. I moved out here to do AmeriCorps after college...that recently ended and I'm looking for a job in non-profits now....but I'm just working at a coffee shop in the meantime.'
I'm lame. I know.
But my 'DC family' and all their friends are so cool- my uncle's a chemist, my aunt's a librarian, my cousin's in public health. And of the 'people I didn't know': one was a horse-vet, one was a doctor, another was an attorney...and one was super-cute and little and 90 years old! They were mostly all in their mid- to late-twenties (except for the cute 90-year-old), and I was intimidated.
In light of Thanksgiving, I've been thinking about something G. K. Chesterton wrote: 'There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.'
This quote is significant on a lot of different levels:
Here's a easy one- all the crazies who have been lining up since this morning outside of Best Buy in order to partake in the Black Friday madness. It's like, why?
Or - how I spent the day surrounded by DC professionals young and old and in-between. I don't know much about the crew I just met tonight, but the general mindset I've witnessed in their contemporaries out here over the past year, is one centered on amassing 'more and more' power, wealth and prestige.
And then - I'm embarrassed by my job? I should really be embarrassed by the amount of clothes I have in my closet or the mass of things I have cluttering up my room.
That last part - 'the other is to desire less' - this applies to material things (duh), but when I was thinking about my life, the thing that I desire the most right now is meaningful employment. I think it's okay that we want things (especially 'good' things like a job we can care about) so long as there's balance. But sometimes, I think that I desire a different job to an unproductive degree. I'm doing all the right things in the job-hunt realm, so it'll happen when it happens - letting it consume my thoughts and attitude won't speed up the timeline. Being a barista just has to be enough for now, and I have to be okay and even thankful for that!
So, this Thanksgiving I am thankful (in addition to all the blessings of health, home, family, friends, etc) for my job.
Later,
Lise
No comments:
Post a Comment