Could I survive on writing alone? Or would I get too bored? | Image via Wikipedia

Earlier this morning, I wrote a post on teaching the 5-paragraph essay. In that post, I promised to share the essay I wrote for my Written Communication students this week. So, here it is&…

My Dream Career

If you could have any job, what would you do? This is a typical first date question, job interview question, or composition class free writing topic, one whose answer may provide a great deal of insight into the life of the respondent. If you were to ask this question of me, my answer would surely provide insight into my psyche simply because the way I would answer is far different than the average American. Honestly, I don’t know that I would be capable of narrowing my dream career down to just one job. While most Americans may dream of having that one stable, full-time job (with benefits,) and the job security that comes with it, to me, working just one job seems dreadfully boring. I’ve had full-time jobs in the past. It’s not that I ‘can’t’ work a full-time job if I have to. I just don’t want to. Instead, I would prefer to incorporate two or three part-time jobs into one full-time career. If that career could consist of any three part-time jobs I want, then I would be a writer. teacher, and farmer.

I’ve always been a writer and always will be, no matter what else I do. Writing is my art. It appears in everything I do. When I worked in finance years ago, I found myself always writing something. As soon as my superiors found out I could write well, they had me writing everything. From memos to work process documentation, I wrote it all. But I hate finance, so I quit that job after three long, tedious years and went searching for a job that wouldn’t drive me crazy.

I eventually ended up freelancing out of the sun room I turned into my home office. But the pay wasn’t that great, and I do like to get out of the house once in a while. So, I eventually turned to teaching for a respite.

Like writing, teaching seems to come naturally to me. It seems like I end up teaching someone something in every job I do. When I worked in finance, my supervisors quickly figured out that I caught on to new computer applications far faster than any of my coworkers. It became common practice for them to train me first on everything and then have me help train my coworkers. I could often train my coworkers more effectively than my supervisors could simply because I was involved in the same day-to-day work processes as my coworkers, while my supervisors were not. I could see where there were communication gaps in the training, gaps that someone unfamiliar with the day-to-day processes would easily miss. Outside of the workplace, I always have friends and relatives asking me for help with homework and various other paperwork (I currently have a list of people waiting for me to help them build websites for their small businesses.) Sometimes it seems like I always have someone waiting for me to teach them how to do something! I enjoy teaching, and the pay isn’t bad. However, I only want to teach part-time because I hate grading papers. If I taught full-time, I would probably spend the majority of my time grading papers, and then I wouldn’t have time to write.

Whether I am writing or teaching, I am quickly distracted by the great outdoors as soon as those outdoors begin to thaw. Freelancing is great during the long Wisconsin winters, but it quickly loses its sheen once spring begins to blossom. As the snow melts each spring I find myself constantly distracted by the flowers and other vegetation sprouting outside my sun room window. Right now, I only have a very small plot of dirt to farm in front of my tiny townhouse. I long for the day when I can buy a small farm where I can have the room to grow everything I want. When that day comes, I will probably spend most of my free time outside in the garden or in the fields. In my dream career, I would spend a third of the year outside, working the land. I’d still find time to write in the evenings, or on a hot afternoon when there’s nothing to do but hide out on a shady front porch with a notebook and a tall glass of lemonade.

If asked what one job I would choose if I could have any job I wanted, I would have a hard time narrowing it down to just one. I would like to concentrate on writing and teaching in the winter to keep myself from going crazy while cooped up indoors, but once spring arrives, I have a hard time staying on task indoors. If hard pressed, I suppose that I would probably choose writing, simply because that is so entwined with who I am as a person. However, teaching and farming would still be a part of my life. Even writing gets boring when I have to do too much of it. They say variety is the spice of life. Well, when it comes to life, I like it hot.

Sorry about the overly long paragraphs. If this were a regular blog post, I would have broken those up. But, I wanted to retain the 5-paragraph structure this time. In future essay-shares, I will likely break the paragraphs up to make them easier for you to read. Anyway, what did you think? This is only a 2nd draft, so I could probably improve it even more. Please comment below and tell me what you found wrong with this draft!