Is "Career" a Myth?

My father's father was a farmer. My father grew up on farm but his father did other jobs to provide for the family.

My dad went into the Army for a year and the Air Force for four years. He studied electronics in the Air Force and earned an Associates degree.

It was a different era, but he started a temporary job that turned into contract extension and full time employment. It can still work that way, but it was in a day when companies rewarded people for a life of service. Pension was not just a government term.

I grew up expecting to go to college. I scored a high school level on an achievement test in sixth grade so that didn't seem to be out of reach. Around the same time we got a computer that connected to the TV and I knew what I was going to be when I grew up.

Sure it wavered some with wondering if something else would have more meaning or purpose. But it always came back to computers. Naive think that anyone can do programming, depends on what level, and they don't realize how number systems and theory are a huge part of it.

I got some college credit for computer science and math for high school classes and went to college for a double major in those subjects. Math minor was required so I used my electives in upper level math classes to meet major requirements for both.

I rushed through with the original plan of graduating in three years. It was a bit much and grades suffered so I slowed down and added two terms, still graduating early.

I had friends who co-oped undergrad and I considered it but stuck with my goal. The economy was slow and everyone wanted experience so after a year I started grad school. By the end of the first year I took a co-op position which would pay less than the bachelors degree should but allow me to get experience and possibly a place to work full time.

Each graduation and before we were lectured on how the average person will have 10 jobs to make up their career. So anyone like my dad who stayed with a large computer company for 30+ years means that some people must have 15 or more jobs to average out.

Anyway I wasn't too worried about it then, which is unlike me in general and how I was raised. Besides I guess I figured if my dad could have an Associates degree and work for the same company so long with some changes along the way that surely with a graduate degree I could manage to have at least few job changes.

Enter life I suppose. Some hereditary issues and some environment issues all came into the perfect storm of a health problem. Long story short the "career" ended quite a bit early.

I took an opportunity to help charity and be on the set of a TV show. I was addicted right away, did various volunteer jobs and oddly enough my first paid job on set was in north Alabama.

I moved to California and chased a dream though not fully enough. I guess I wanted an excuse for if/when it ended that it was because I didn't give it my all. Easier said than done but that's the only way to do anything.

I know I did a lot of just what I needed to to get through the subjects or classes I didn't like, but it's totally different in career. Of course you can give it too much and cause problems in personal life, like letting relationships suffer and over-stress yourself. The art is in striking a balance.

I haven't learned quite how the balance is achieved, and maybe never will.

Only a few got to see me perform and stir emotion which is what I had hoped to do on a much larger scale. Health and finance got in the way of just trying to be seen on a small scale.

I needed the unraveling and winding down of so many things and have met some people online who have been encouraging, that I likely would not have met otherwise.

I keep thinking of what I could do related to the old career on my own and run into hurdles that seem to point me into a more creative direction.

Working in Hollywood almost every job was a day at a time, so I've technically had well over 100 jobs. So I don't need to worry about changing jobs. I've balanced out my dads single career job in the quoted average.