Quarterback Crisis

I just changed to a new job. The reason for changing jobs is the same as for many other young people of the same age: bored with the old job that is too familiar, want to find a new environment and new challenges. After hiring me, the new boss told me: "I always ask each of my employees when they first join the company: Who do you want to become or where do you want to go in the future. I can give you all the conditions you need, but I have to know what do you want to do with them?".

I was startled to realize that I couldn't come up with an answer for my boss, or for myself.

I asked my friends and was surprised (or not) that hardly any of them could answer that question. Is it strange that at this age we still don’t know who we will be in this life?

Most people are looking for stability. A stable job, a stable salary, a stable life. No ups and downs, no storms, and most importantly, no gambles where you have to bet too much. But anything that is too stable can easily become boring. In fact, people who choose this path spend half of their lives yawning. The other half complaining that they are bored.

Some people accept to play the game of chance with fate. Sometimes they win big, sometimes they lose. Some have the willpower and courage to continue playing the game after a few failures. Some give up with regret and often the slander of others. The funny thing is, parents are often among the most active critics. “Fish that doesn’t eat salt will rot, if you had listened to your parents from the beginning, worked in A or B, you would have become Mr. C or Mrs. D now”,… and so on and so forth…

It is a fact that, when we stand at a crossroads in life, we only care about what immediately catches our eyes: is the road wide or narrow, winding or straight, flat or bumpy... No one thinks to ask the question, where will this road lead us? Because after all, if we do not even know our destination, what is the meaning of that journey? Or maybe we choose the path that we think is easy, but in the end we realize that it does not lead to where we want. What will you do in that situation? Find a way to where you want to go or accept stopping at a destination that does not belong to you?

The sad truth is that we can hardly control the path we want to take or the destination we want to reach. Because we do not set out on our own but carry with us a few or many responsibilities. The older we get, the heavier that suitcase of responsibilities becomes. It can slow down our journey or worse, change the route and the final destination. In fact, the crisis of people at the age of 25 explodes when they feel the weight of the so-called Responsibility.

For some personal reasons, I am an unfortunate (or lucky, I don’t know?) traveler who lost his suitcase somewhere along the road to adulthood. If someone were to ask me now what my destination is, I would answer: I don’t know. Because for me, the important thing is the journey, not the destination. Maybe many people will say I’m crazy. But that doesn’t matter, as long as I know I’m doing what I really want, I will still be a sane crazy person.

And you, do you know where you are going?