| reinvention |
[Apr. 6th, 2009|09:00 am] |
I think it's important in life to reinvent yourself now and then. I think people get too caught up in a stereotypical self-identity and they limit themselves. "I can't balance my checkbook, I'm an English major!" "I exclusively read sci-fi novels because I'm a engineer!" "I can't learn the internet, I'm an old person!" People don't say things like that of course, but they certainly subconsciously act that way. It is most true of political affiliation. People have a self-image of who they are, and then they map that self-image onto a political party. Then they instinctively believe that party's entire platform without ever really thinking about individual issues and saying, "just because I identify myself as this sort of person, do I really think that is a good idea?"
The only way out of this is to actively break yourself down over and over again. To say, "what is it I can't do?" and then do it! Ask yourself the question, "how do I define myself, what am I?" write down everything you think you are. Then become something that isn't on that list. I remember in high school I didn't read most of the novels for English class because "I was a scientist." But then when I got to college I made a conscious decision to stop being a stereotypical scientist. The first thing I did was to read The Sound and the Fury just for fun, because that was exactly the sort of thing that scientists didn't do. Going to law school was a similar decision I guess. I've got 3 M.S. degrees but it now seems unnatural to tell people I'm an engineer. That's no longer who I am. Pretty exciting.
Of course the downside to reinventing yourself constantly is that you never become really good at anything. Or at least you never progress to the pinnacle of anything. If I went to work in law now I'd be starting from the bottom, I'd never be able to achieve the success of someone who went into the field straight out of college. That's kind of disappointing. I guess I have to come to grips with the fact that I'll never be an 'expert' in anything because I'll never have spent my entire career doing that one thing. Frustrating I guess, because it would be nice to be a respected authority on something, but I suppose its worth it in the long run to get to experience life in as many different ways as possible.
So, after law school what should be next? An M.D.? Become an itinerant farmer? Move to Africa? Learn the cello? |
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