A vocation is one's calling in life. We are called to many different areas that it almost seems hard to know which path is right to follow. This year is my junior year in highschool and I am already being pushed to think about my future and what I want my life to be like. A decision of this magnitude is extremely hard and daunting to make. How am I supposed to know what my true vocation is if I'm not even eighteen yet? There are a plethora of hobbies I love to do and activities I participate in, but which one is right for me? Which one brings me joy? I started out thinking about what I am good at. For as long as I can remember, I have always loved school. My mother used to say that I had the brain of an elephant because I could always remember details when nobody else could. Having that type brain made it easy to learn and succeed in school. I was never the athletic type. I tried every sport imaginable, but nothing ever stuck with me; I decided that school would be my sport. Every year, I tried my hardest to achieve the highest grades and every year it paid off. When I was ten, I started to get involved with Irish step dancing and I instantly fell in love. Everybody else either did ballet, tap, jazz, modern, or other dances, but nobody did Irish Step; it was my own thing. As the years past, I began to compete and move up in the ranks of competitive dancing. When I reached the championship level, I decided to stop and just dance for my own enjoyment and happiness. Although
The one thing many people do not talk about is vocation. Gordon T. Smith declares there are three different forms of vocation. First is the general call which is the invitation to follow Christ. Second is the specific call, this is unique to each person and can be classified as their mission in this world. Third is the immediate responsibilities; these are the task God requires of us daily (p. 10). As a Christian, one's vocation is their response to God; their call is to serve Him in life and reflect who He is to others, no matter the stage of life they are in or the occupations they are call to pursue. Occupations may change through life, but the vocational call remains consistent despite the
Throughout my life, I’ve wanted to be many things. An astronaut, a princess, a doctor, a lawyer, and at one point in my life the president. Now that I am older and much more mature. I still haven’t decided what I wanted to be. When I first started my high school career, I was terrified. I didn’t know what I wanted to be. So I decided to try new things. I’ve been with choir ever since I was in the sixth grade, so I thought I would give it shot, and try something new. I started to take drama and art. I soon found out, that I wasn’t great at either of those things. I had stage fright and I sucked at drawing. But, I didn’t give up. I stayed with choir, drama, art, and basketball. Now that I am a senior and ready to graduate, I have found out I
Life is full of decisions. You have the choice to decide what you want to do for a career. Some may have jobs they wish they could change or made the decision before to have done something differently. The career you choose should be something you love, along with aspects that fit your values the best. Interest, skills, financially that you know you can excel in. A plan for life is important, so it’s best to know or have an idea on what you want to proceed in.
I must find my calling if I am to truly live my life to the fullest and to live out God’s plan for my life. God is the only one who can help me find my purpose. He has had a plan for my life long before I was even born and that God has a purpose for me that no one else could fulfill. “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future, Jeremiah 29:11” (NIV). This means that no matter what I do as long as I am in accordance with God’s will, everything will turn out for the best in the end. God has promised to give me hope and a future and to bless my life. “For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do, Ephesians 2:10” (NIV). With this knowledge I know that God has created me exactly the way I should be and that he has given me talents and skills enough to do all he asks of me to do.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. “ Those words, spoken by Confucius, represent the goal of not only mine, but many others when it comes to finding your true calling. The voyage to find your purpose in life can be quite difficult. Often times this journey proves too challenging and forces an individual to give up all together and instead settle for something easier to obtain and inferior to their original goal. This can commonly lead to feelings of unfulfillment and regret in the choices you have made. It’s not until you find your true calling that you go from thinking about your job as something that you have to do to something that you love doing.
In the article "Now I Become Myself," author Parker Palmer endeavors to illustrate to her readership how can find personal fulfillment in their occupations by finding out about the self and what it is the individual needs to be satisfied. Most important to Palmer is a wider understanding of the term "vocation." This term is usually applied to religious persons who feel some otherworldly calling to the mantle of the clergy. However, Palmer argues that vocation can be a part of everyone's life, no matter which field it is to which they are drawn. Vocation is a gift for every person from a divine being who tries to inspire people to become the best versions of their selves possible. Achieving this is possible for everyone so long as they listen to the self and do not engage in actions which would hinder self-discovery. What's more, Palmer says, once the self-actualization has occurred, one is not only a better employee, but a better all around human being.
As an Early College High School student, we were told that from day one as a freshman we had to know what we wanted to study and do for the rest of our lives. Middle school didn’t exactly prepare us for that type of environment, let alone have us decide what our future career would be. At fifteen I was still figuring out myself, and I’m glad I took the time to do that first. I might not have known then, but after all the training and experience the last three years of my life has given me I definitely know now. It takes more than just a thought to create a passion, it takes experience and knowing oneself. I found my passion, it was a burning desire to study in the field of nursing.
As a child, I always thought that it was my assignment in life to become an attorney. At least that's what my parents said. But not me! I was always into the arts, singing; although I can't, dancing, producing mini shows, or whatever I could do to express myself creatively. Unfortunately my parents were not convinced that the arts would get me far in life, so they pushed me down the college track. Even the high school guidance counselors saw the leadership in me. Surely, she's going to college and becoming a lawyer. So I tried it. Although surrounded by the uncertainty, but these people have my best interest at heart so why not? Except when I got there, I was not passionate about it at all! There started this search of who am I and what is it
The life’s too short, don’t waste your time in doing a thing you don’t like or didn’t match with your life vision.
For a while I struggled with knowing what career field I should enter. Coming into my junior year I started seriously considering my strengths and weaknesses and how they would tailor to a specific career field. At the time I was apart of a group called Faith Expressions. Faith Expressions is a dance and sign-language group created by my mother and another lady who leads the same group at another church. Originally my mother choreographed the dances we would learn and preform, but being significantly older than all the other girls participating I decided to ask for a leadership position in the group as a dance choreographer. Over the course of 6 months I taught and choreographed a dance to 7 girls ranging in age from 5-9. During my time mentoring them I realized not only my passion for teaching but my passion for teaching
All throughout my life I’ve always been at a lost with what I wanted to do. I would see something and become inspired, but moments later my dreams would be crumbled. As a child I’ve always had my fazes, once it was a nurse because all my aunts are in the medical field and I thought it would be interesting as well. Then it was as a criminal investigator, FBI or CIA agent due to my habit of watching criminal shows (aka Law and Order SUV, Criminal minds, and etc.). Finally, I hit a standstill with becoming a Criminal Justice Lawyer, but even then I wasn’t inspired anymore for it was just the easy way out of this indecisiveness. As a year went by everyone asked the horrid question I had been avoiding “what do you want to do in your life” and I
Over the years I have thought of many different careers and majors that I believed I should do. Most of the time they were based on what I saw other people, who I looked up to doing. My cousin Courtney was a lifeguard, so I wanted to be a lifeguard, my mom was a nurse, so I wanted to work in the medical field. Then I would be watching sporting events with my dad, and I wanted to be a sports journalist/reporter. It wasn’t until high school that I really started to look at what I liked to do and what I was good at.
The value of Vocation is a call from God, while most people think of a vocation as what they are called to do in life, it is important to understand that the first and most important call from God is a call to be a universal call to holiness. Your career or profession doesn’t necessarily reflect your vocation. However, there is an overlap between a vocation and a profession.
Approaching the conclusion of this course, I have learned a lot that could be used in both my everyday life, as well as my current and future career. This course have not only open my eyes to see some of challenges that await me in my future career as a Health Care Manager, but it has also taught me some real life lessons that can be used in my personal life. One thing that was useful is the video that talks about vocation. The video did not only remind me of my job has a vocation (calling), and how relevant it is to society and the people that I served, moreover myself as a Christian. “Vocation 101: What is Vocation?”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihnzFH2L818
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1883) said, “Each man has his own vocation, his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.” (p. 112). He was speaking of the gifts granted us by God to fulfill the plan that He has for our life. Discovering and utilizing those gifts is part of the decision making process in career counseling. Christians advocate the use of spiritual discernment in order to guide the decision making process. Properly interpreting the will of God for one’s life is at the heart of each of our choices including those choices involving vocation.