“Find you something good to do, and go do it until it isn’t good anymore.
Then go find you something else that’s good to.”
This is the advice that was given to me by the Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs at my Alma Mater. He had asked me what I was going to be when I grew up. At the time, I was a sophomore. I told him that when I was little I wanted to be a vet, then I discovered chemistry was harder than I had anticipated. After those dreams fell by the wayside, I had thought about studying to be a lawyer. I still was tossing it around, but I didn’t feel like I had a drive for it. Law school would simply be something to do. At the time, I was worried the reasons I had were not good enough reasons to invest in a Law Degree.
Dr. K looked at me and said the words that would stay with me for a very long time. In fact, those words would be the exact words I would tell people when they asked me what I was going to do when I graduated. Before he gave me his advice, I was scared to think about graduation. I had no clue as to what I wanted to do when I walked away from college. I felt like I should have the next fifty years of my career planned out and ready to execute before I walked across the stage at commencement.
His words of wisdom assured me this was not the case. It did not matter if I was going to be a lawyer or if I wanted to do something different with my life. If had a prestigious, well-paying job lined up for me the day I graduated college, that was fine. Or, conversely, if I had no job lined up the moment I left, I would be all right.
All I needed to do was find a job that was good to do, and then go do it until it was not good anymore. Then I should go find myself something else that was good to do.
I may never make a million dollars a year. I may never have my name walk in a room before I do. The majority of people on this earth do not. I would be proud to have been one of them, if I accomplish one thing: if I did good and not just well during my lifetime.
I am now a senior in college and I am trying to find the good I want to do after I graduate. It turns out that there are far more options for doing some good in the world than there are for making money and climbing the ladder. Which is both a huge relief and more than a little overwhelming, to tell the truth.
But when the day comes that I am lucky enough to find something good to do, I have every assurance that I will pour my whole heart and soul into the task at hand.
