Last summer, the University of Düsseldorf invited me to give a talk about careers to students at its English department. One of them wanted to know how I had found my career. In Yakov Smirnoff style, I explained that my career had found me.
Specific circumstances had led to me being hired as a writer and editor, I said, in spite of my doubt that this could ever be a viable career. But that was only part of it. Various natural inclinations had already been at work.
Speaking in German, I could express the point succinctly. Your Berufung — your calling — should be your Beruf — your profession, I said. The best careers are those that turn something you enjoy into something you can earn a living from. You’ll be better at what you do because it won’t seem like work and you’ll be putting your full effort into it.
What do you like to do?
If you have no idea what to do with your life, just look at what you do naturally and how you spend most of your time. Ask yourself: Do you like to be around people? Do you prefer working on your own? Do you like to organize things? Do you like being around children or animals? Do you like being in a particular environment — outdoors, in hotels or around food? Is there something that you find yourself thinking about all the time?
Our parents usually do look for clues like these and try to guide us, but we’re not used to doing this for ourselves.
It was only recently that I realized where my inclination to be a journalist came from: my questioning nature as a little kid. I needed answers to everything! Sure, every three-year-old does, but I think I took it to a new level. I remember asking questions constantly.
For a while, my parents were patient, offering either a commonly accepted explanation or one they’d thought of off the top of their heads. (This later taught me to consider the source of any information and look for verifiable evidence.) When they grew tired of my questioning, their answers became “I don’t know,” “Look it up,” and my favorite, “You’ll find out when you’re older.”
I think they taught me to read at age three so that my quest for knowledge would be less taxing on them. There was so much to find out.
If I had questions, surely others did, too
If I had questions, surely others did, too. Collecting available answers or theories and communicating them could not only satisfy my own curiosity, but also be a service to others.
This is what I’ve aimed to do in 19 years at Spotlight — in 190 magazine articles about historical events, in 10 years of coordinating and writing a section on science and technology, in five years of scripting the Replay news segment for Spotlight Audio. This column, now in its seventh year, grew out of the analyses I’d written of several US elections.
And now…
One of the students in Düsseldorf surprised me with the question: “What do you see yourself doing next?”
I hadn’t considered that I was on a cusp, but soon discovered I was. Our paths through life, even our careers, are not set. They’re always changing and evolving, and her words reminded me of this. My career, I’ve decided, will now be branching out into new areas. Writing and explaining will continue to be a big part of it.
You’ve helped me to make this decision as well.
I don’t consider my writing to be very special; it’s just something I do because I like doing it.
Usually I felt I’d succeeded whenever something I’d written earned an appreciative laugh from our translator down the hall. But over the years, requests came to have articles of mine reprinted in exam-preparation materials. Readers wrote in to say they’d not only read, but discussed articles of mine in their English classes. Recently, reader Christoph V. referred to my articles as “stimulating”; Rüdiger K. called one of them “a real masterpiece”. Michelle from Switzerland made my day, and many more, with her praise for this blog. I feel truly honored.
“Fascinating America” will, therefore, continue as a project of mine. By arrangement with Spotlight Verlag, all the previous entries will soon be available at fascinating-america.com (though without glossed vocabulary).
Please do continue to read and recommend Spotlight and encourage the authors and contributors you like. And if you like my writing, keep reading!
Thank you all. See you on the other side.
