The Grill is Hot, the Pool is Luked...

Just got back from a celebratory barbecue in beautiful suburban Hawthorne, California. My friend Jake has just left his job at engineering firm Raytheon to pursue a business degree, and today was his last day. So, we all got together, grilled some burgers and got drunk to give him a proper send-off. A lot of my fellow guests were people I haven't spent time with since college, and it's always fun to catch up with old friends.

But tonight got me thinking as well. So many of my friends and associates from college and beyond have already switched careers, very young in life. Jake started as an engineer and is now going to be a businessman. My friend John has had a few completely different jobs since UCLA, and now works for a furniture company. My roommate Chris has been a traffic reporter, a traveling salesman, and now works at the front desk of a Westwood hotel. My friend Brooke has run a flower shop, produced music videos, managed an architectural firm and now runs a small magazine in a town near Dallas, Texas.

And then there's me. I've worked as a bookstore manager, assistant publicist, reporter, screenwriter, post-production coordinator and video store clerk. I've thought of a career in at least four or five industries without sticking to anything. Is what I'm observing in my friends restlessness, an inability to focus or something else entirely? Is direction overrated?

I just feel like the smart people I know, both motivated and not as motivated, haven't seemed to find their place yet. And we're not talking about young people still trying to find their way in the world. I celebrated my 26th birthday in November and I'm in the younger portion of this group. In fact, I only have two friends who have had clear, direct occupational goals which they have held to: my high school chum who currently works as a pediatric resident and my college buddy who works as a line cook in Chicago.

I can't help but feel that this is a new phenomenon, though of course I could be wrong. Has it always been this way? A nation of directionless 30-somethings unable to commit, too eager to experience the variety of life to decide on one path and stick to it? And will there be any negative consequences for this behavior down the road? Are we setting ourselves up for failure by refusing to focus our efforts in one area, or planning intelligently for our future by gaining a diversity of knowledge and experience.

I don't know the answer to any of these questions. To be honest with you, I'm tired and it's too late to do the heavy philosophizing now. But it's something for all of us to think about, I suppose...

Jake pulled me aside at one point this evening to level with me, or something, I guess. He asked me why, with my Master's Degree and reasonable intellect, I worked as an assistant manager in a video store. To be honest, I don't know the answer to this question, and I told him as much. But if I was pressed, the truth is that I just can't motivate to do anything else. Working at Laser Blazer is what I want to do, it's what I like to do, it's a place I don't mind going for a few hours a day to earn a little money.

And I know that life isn't always defined by what you want to do. But if it takes slaving away at a job you hate for 50, 60 hours a week just to eke by, is that worth doing at all?