La Vida Idealist

I recently read in the New York Times an article that helped articulate the confusion I’ve been feeling lately regarding “the next step” once my job in Peru is over. The op-ed piece by David Brooks is entitled The Summoned Self, and outlines two ways of thinking about life.

The first is the Well-Planned Life. Those who favor it think that young people should determine a clear life purpose early on, and then make life decisions based on these goals to follow a pre-determined life trajectory. The other way can be called the Summoned Self. Here, “Life isn’t a project to be completed, it is an unknowable landscape to be explored.” In this view young people aren’t yet capable of knowing their life purpose. Circumstances such as economic and family obligations should dictate life choices, and a sense of purpose will only emerge over time as knowledge and experience are gained.

To which of these camps I fall into, it’s hard to tell. I haven’t quite figured out a life plan or goal, but I have discovered a few elements necessary for me to be happy in my future work. Helping people in some form or another, doing socially impactful work, and intellectual stimulation are a few. These don’t constitute a Well-Planned life purpose in and of themselves, but I see them as a start.

These goals may seem grand, but reality soon sets in. In just four days I return home, in search of work and with little savings. The job market remains tight and the economy slumped. After cultivating my independence for the past five years I will regress to move back under my parents’ roof and into my childhood bedroom. To avoid this becoming my permanent reality, economic necessity may dictate that I forfeit my work goals and take on a more menial job: one that will send me on a quicker path to financial independence.

Many socially minded young people face this same dilemma: How does one reconcile the desire to do socially impactful work with the economic necessity of securing a livable income?

The Summoned Self creeps in and asks: can I be sure that the goals I deem worthy now will produce happiness in the future? At 23 years old, maybe I’m not capable of knowing. Perhaps sacrificing my idealism for economic security is the right and inevitable thing to do, so I shouldn’t worry so much about values in choosing a job.

Maybe next year, I can take on an unpaid internship that allows me to perform interesting and significant work, and a second job that will pay the bills. Then the paths of the Well-Planned Life and the Summoned Self wouldn’t seem so mutually exclusive.

I don’t know whether I’ll figure out my life purpose in six months or twenty years, but for now I’ll just hope that meaning will emerge somewhere down the line, and pray that I won’t be living with my parents for the rest of my life.

Kimberly is currently serving as Program Manager for GirlSportWorks, a US-based NGO that seeks to enhance the lives of Peruvian girls through athletics. For more musings on life post-experience, check out “Homecoming” by Lizzie LaCroix.

Latest posts by KFriedland

• Signing Off: Reverse Culture Shock and Lessons Learned from a Year Abroad - August 30th, 2010
• Conversations with Cab Drivers - August 2nd, 2010
• Transferring Your Organization to New Hands - July 26th, 2010
• Money Matters: An Awkward Request from Students - July 19th, 2010
• The Decline in Quechua Use Among Urban Cusqueñans: What Should be Done? - July 12th, 2010
• Nostalgia for Home, Manifested as Strange Cravings - July 6th, 2010
• Organizing Fundraisers at Home and Abroad - June 29th, 2010
• Everybody Say Lúcuma: A Follow-Up to “Buying a New Jacket While Surrounded by Poverty” - June 21st, 2010
• Understanding, Acquired Over Time - June 14th, 2010
• Buying a New Jacket While Surrounded by Poverty - June 11th, 2010