Navigating through Life

The Garmin Nuvi is by far my favorite toy. In the past year, my Garmin has helped me wade through the paths of the Great Mid-West and the Coastal plains of the South-East. A large LCD touch screen, great battery life and even meant to be used while strolling downtown in some foreign city. I would be lost without it. However, this post’s purpose is not to highlight the specs of this product, nor is it a sponsored advertisement by the Swiss Geniuses.

You see, I am directionally challenged: challenged to the point that when I have a son, I’m going to enroll in boy scouts with him and learn how to use a compass and understand what “Head South” or “Hook East” means (why we just can’t use the terms “left” and “right” still baffles me). And until that point in time, I will continue my pathetic search for a Rosetta Stone on navigation.

The past year has taught me that perhaps it’s not just navigational directions that I struggle with, but perhaps my career needed a Garmin-type tutor.

Since graduation, I feel like I’ve done some stellar internships and held some great gigs. But, I could never find a full-time position in the PR/Jounalism field. The one that I did find ended up hitting a dead end when the firm folded. I was frustrated as I would continually be reminded that hiring freezes are a huge reality. Though internships and part time gigs are abundant, the ‘first step in a career’ is hard to come across.

At times I wished that some soft-spoken, gentle African-American man’s voice would just echo in my head and tell me what to do and where to go. Side note: I’m a 25 year old man, but I would gladly let Morgan Freeman read Roald Dahl books to me by a fire.

Today my “route,” or my career, took a different exit. Today, I signed a new contract and on June 14 2010, I will commence my position as a Financial Broker at Charles Schwab. I have never taken an Economics class in my life, and my knowledge of Wall Street is restricted to the blockbuster movie, The Pursuit of Happiness. Perhaps it is for this reason that instead of congratulating me on the good news, my mother retorted with a “What are you doing?”

Well what am I doing?

You remember when you were a kid and someone would ask you what you wanted to be when you grew up? And back then, since the term “recession” was extremely alien to you, since the difference between Harvard and the University of Phoenix really didn’t matter and since everybody made a lot of money anyhow, the obvious answer was “An Explorer!” Well a lot has changed since those days of yore. Who was to know that the Al Gore’s great “invention,” was going to supply news directly to everyone without having to pay for a subscription rate? Or that one day, you would be competing for an entry-leve job with a person who has three degrees and nine years of experience? Hmm, well now we all know that life isn’t that peachy and that it really has a cruel and crafty way of mixing things up.

Through college, I found myself wishing for some type of short-cut. Perhaps some type of GPS that wouldn’t just give me advice on what to do or conveniently dish me out a business card of someone I needed to contact, but a device that would give me a job and take me from point A to point B. Something that would tell me how long I needed to be on that route for and where the pit-stops were if I needed to take a break, or grab a bite to eat and fill up the tank. But then life would be too easy right?

Either way, this is where I am. I’m starting a new career. I’m excited about it and ready to see what the future holds. I will resume my part-time reporting for the Current and will try to free-lance more. I also hope to use my blog as a more regular and real outlet for my thoughts. And who knows what the next turn in my career is? Who knows if there is a better alternate route or perhaps a more scenic route and how many miles each would take? I surely don’t. But I’m sure it will just sort itself out when the time arises.