in which i write a girly blog post about choosing a career

Dress shopping is a fascinating and personality-revealing phenomenon. You browse through store after store, finding all the dresses you think are beautiful. Then you try them on, one after another, discarding all the ones that don’t fit quite right.

Then you are left with the most difficult task of all — determining which of these beautiful dresses suit you. Which one is actually your style? Which one reflects your personality, your understanding of the way clothes should function as self-expression? Maybe this one pushes your style a little bit but is undeniably you, maybe that one is classic you, and maybe that one over there (yes, the green polka-dotted one) fits well but isn’t right at all.

Choosing is hard. Because you want to choose something you’ll love until it wears out, possibly years down the road.

Career options are the same way. It seems logical to think that once you’ve chosen your major (or in my case, majors), your career will just follow. But no, choosing a major is like choosing all the dresses that are beautiful. Then, throughout your classes, you figure out what, specifically, within that major fits you well. Like photography or printmaking, creative writing or literature analysis.

Then the hardest part. You have to figure out which, of all the things you loved about your (possibly multiple) majors suits you. Does art or English suit me more? Photography or printmaking? Editing or writing? How could I most happily spend my life, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week?

And if you’re lucky, the things that suit you will also fit you (i.e. you’ll be able to find a job opening in that area). If not, well, learn to make your own clothes I guess.

The good thing is, there are plenty of stores and employers out there. . . .

And that ends girly metaphor hour with Mackenzie. Tune in next time, to hear me compare marriage to the process of doing your nails.

(Just kidding. I don’t know anything about marriage and I never do my nails.)

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