I am back at it with another question for Ms. Kitty, the advice column for paid subscribers to The Change Agent. This week I’m giving you a chance to see this post for free so you can have a peek inside.
In this week’s letter, my guess is that the writer submitting is youngish, say under 30. Why is that important? Well, there are something we aren’t supposed to have figured out until we are older, but I’ll play Mother Time and try to push that envelope for you.
This week’s column talks about that.
Dear Ms. Kitty,
I’m at a point in my life when I’ve worked several jobs and feel like I have some skills, but nothing is sticking. Each time I get a new job I get so excited about the possibilities, and sure enough like clockwork, I become disenchanted and am working on my resume again.
How can I figure out the right path for me? I’m tired of wasting time and being unhappy.
Yours in frustration,
Pointless and seeking direction
Dear Direction Seeker,
Fresh out of college with a new Creative Writing degree, I thought I was the shit, at least from a poetry writing angle. Having had a few things published, my perspective was, shall we say, a bit skewed.
But that’s how things are supposed to feel at that age, which perhaps is close to yours? The trouble starts when we turn on ourselves and start feeling the hot breath of not-enoughness puffing down our necks. Let’s talk about that.
That first year out of college everyone I knew was working in bars and restaurants: bartenders, servers, cooks, oh it was the life. Work and party all night, sleep in, run errands and grab a dance class and pint of Häagen-Dazs after (just me?) and then repeat. One of those nights, several of us were hanging at a swanky restaurant in downtown LA where a friend was kitchen manager. We downed expensive drinks sans payment since it was the 80’s and that’s how it worked, waiting for her shift to be over.