Member-only story
The Future of Work and Purpose
An essay on our work, on our purpose, and how I hope it evolves to better serve our futures.
I have been struggling recently with the thought of work and purpose.
I was raised in a household that was solidly subscribed to the American Dream. My path was set in stone from birth. I watched my father make a decent living in a white collar job and support his two daughters under this dream. I saw the step up he took from his own father’s path — a blue collar plumber. I saw the power in his college degree, the things he attained by sticking to the prescribed plan. To be successful, I was to go to college, work hard, and then I would experience success. He would tell me, on country drives in his used car:
Rigor, Veronica. You need rigor to survive in this world.
Those words are burned deeper in my mind than my tattoos are in my own skin. Rigor.
So I did this. I went to college in a lucrative and promising career field. I got a ‘good job’, and I worked hard. I fit the traditional criteria that were outlined for me, and I followed the plan. Or so I thought.
At the end of this plan, I found myself sitting in a job that didn’t serve me — feeling deeply unhappy.
