Day Nine: The Lyrics To Fun.'s New Song

So I didn't write yesterday. 

Which means I have to make up for it today, I guess. 

So. 

Part one. 

This weekend has been frustrating and grand and exciting and thought-provoking and humbling all at the same time. 

I was thinking about the book One Day by David Nicholls a lot this weekend. If you haven't read it and you're between the ages of 20 and 35, you should probably drop everything and read it. Because it explains life at this stage better than anything I've ever read. 

When I got out of college, I thought I knew what was going to happen. 

I would get a job. Maybe not The Perfect Job, but a job I would stay at for five ish years until a publisher would contact me because they had been reading my short stories I've been publishing in literature magazines and wanted me to publish a book of short stories, or a tv man would contact me because he had an idea for a show and he wanted me to be a head writer and life would be grand. 

And then I would meet a man and we would date for a few years and he would be wonderful to me and we would get married and I would decorate our house and he would mow the lawn and we would have a little vegetable garden and have foster kids. 

Obviously none of this is happening. 

But I have been waiting around for that perfect job and that perfect man for the past three years and waiting around for life to start. 

Which is a load of crap. But I know I'm not the only one doing this. 

And you know what. We are young and life is kind of crappy to us right now. 

That should be the chorus to Fun.'s new song. 

So I'm tired of waiting around for "life to start." 

Why not just start it now? Why not just be a temp for a little while? Why not be a secretary or a coffee shop worker or a bar tender while I write a zombie novel like Nick Miller? 

This is a conversation I feel like I've been having with a few friends for several months now. We put so much emphasis on finding the perfect career, on centering our lives around our jobs, and I really don't like that. What I do as a job or a source of income really shouldn't define who I am. 

I went to hear an amazing man speak at a Bible study event a week or so ago, and he said some things that I so, so needed to hear. One thing was that God calls us to use the gifts He has given us, not to a job. Our job can be a venue for how to use the gifts God has given us, but our Point given by God is so much more than our 9 to 5. 

So what that means to me right now is that I don't have to have a perfect house with a perfect husband. I can have a pretty cool apartment with my best friend, and make just enough money to pay for rent and Netflix and ramen noodles while finding my way in life. 

And that's good enough for me.