#womencrushwednesday | Michelle Obama On Career Changes
Becoming by Michelle Obama is one of the books on my January Reading List. When I first purchased the audiobook I was intimidated by the 19-hour length. And now, 11 hours into the book, I know the investment is well worth it. Autobiographies are my new favorite genre to read, especially when the books are narrated by their authors. First, when the author narrates their own books, they sound much more natural as if they are talking to you face to face instead of telling you a story. Second, when the books are about the author’s life stories and being narrated by the authors themselves, they build on each other’s energy. One of my favorite passages from this book is this:
“I was realizing that the next phase of my journey would not simply unfold on its own, that my fancy academic degrees weren’t going to automatically lead me to fulfilling work. Finding a career as opposed to a job wouldn’t just come from perusing the contact pages of an alumni directory; it required deeper thought and effort. I would need to hustle and learn and so, again and again, I laid out my professional dilemma for the people I met, quizzing them on what they did and whom they knew. I asked earnest questions about what kind of work might be available to a lawyer who din’t, in fact, want to practice law.”
— Michelle Obama, Becoming
This is relevant to one of the topics near and dear to this blog: career changes. For some people it is apparent what they were meant to do since the day they were born; for others, it’s not so straightforward. For those who spend more time pondering, changing, or “swerving” it can be confusing why their paths are not as simple as others’. In the book there were plenty of examples of people in her life who faced career changes: her brother, a boyfriend she dated in college, and herself. These stand in stark contrast to Barack’s confidence and devotion to his calling in public service and politics. I suppose there are as many ways to find your careers as there are ways to cook an egg, and there is no one way that stands out from the rest on a personal level. My takeaway message is: respond to your calling if you hear it; think long and hard about what you love to do and what you can offer to the world if you don’t hear the calling right away — but don’t be afraid to change! There is no right or wrong, and if you find something that excites you and you are good at, you are probably heading in the right direction.
