How Has Your Relationship With Work Changed?

A good reflection activity is to think about your relationship with work over the years. Decades, if you're old enough. And if you're younger, you can still look at what work means to you now and how that understanding is beginning to take shape.

When I was a teenager, I wanted to work. I wanted to get a job. I worked at a steel factory and a dollar store. Back then, it was mostly about having my own money: money I could put in the bank, money I could spend, money that allowed me to make decisions for myself.

There was a sense of freedom associated with work.

I enjoyed getting in the car and driving to my job. I enjoyed stopping at 7-Eleven for coffee. I enjoyed going on break and going to lunch. The job itself wasn't always exciting. Sometimes the hours dragged. But typically, work was something I looked forward to.

Then, as I got older, something began to creep in. Work gradually became part of my identity.

When you're in college, people meet you at church or a party and ask, "What's your major?" And when you tell them, the next question is often, "What are you going to do with that?"

That question always felt a little off-putting to me. Couldn't I study something just because I enjoyed learning about it? Did every interest need to come with a career plan?

The conversation felt transactional: choose a major, get a degree, get a career.

Now, as I help my son prepare for college and think about his future, I hear myself asking some of those same questions. What's your major going to be? What career interests you? Where do you want to go? What kind of job do you want?

Those are practical questions. They matter. But something in me wants to slow down and make room for a few others. What interests you? What do you enjoy learning? What kind of contribution would you like to make? What do you want your life to look like?

Of course, I don't want to swing the pendulum so far that we dismiss work altogether. Work is a contribution. Through our work, we support other people's well-being and help things run a little better. We participate in something beyond ourselves.

And there is the practical reality: we need money for housing, food, clothes, and bills. Without an income or another source of support, meeting those needs becomes much more challenging.

I'm grateful to be able to work.

Still, it's interesting to look back at how my relationship with it has changed. What once felt like freedom now carries responsibilities, expectations, and questions about who I am.

I haven't arrived at any clear answers.

How much of who you are is tied to what you do?

Here, I made this. My gift to you, for taking the time to read.

Images are from my imagination, generated by AI. Writing is all me.