Thursday, August 23, 2007

Winners



Today's Dilbert struck me as very funny and totally pertinent to my life. I'm not sure why, but then I've always had a sense of humor that could be considered a little odd. (Some might say inappropriate.)

Part of why I like this was the "fabric-covered box" and the fact that I love fabric—touching it, working with it, holding it and dreaming about what it could become.

The other part was the "women don't like winners". The Professor and I had had a few discussions about my accomplishments and the fact that I tend not to reveal all of who I am and what I've accomplished when I meet a new man. Past therapists had endorsed this practice, affirming my sense of scaring men away. The Professor's take is that the man I really want is one who won't be scared by how strong and accomplished I am but will, rather, be turned on by it.

I have now changed my way of thinking to match the Professor's on this issue. No more hiding and concealing. Now if I could just meet a man on whom to practice this new philosophy.

And speaking of accomplishments, I applied for an editorial job at the Youngstown Vindicator yesterday and got a nice note back this morning from Todd Franko, the newspaper's editor. Before saying that I had a very impressive résumé that he'd like to explore, he said his first reaction was "why so many jobs?" Good God, I'm 57 years old. Life happens. I did state in my response to him that the first several years after law school was about trying to find the right position, and the part in 1996-2000 was about balancing my husband's illness and death with my career. And I told him I try to consider it "broad-based experience."

I've read research lately that the young people just now graduating tend to stay with jobs an average of one year. Just think, twenty years from now everyone will have two-page résumés! And yet I do envy the people who find the right position and are able to stay there (no layoffs, no terminated contracts, no caregiving for a dying spouse) for their entire career.

The right man, the right job, the right house . . . . What a long and tedious process.

2 comments:

Traveler said...

I'm starting to feel a little guilty here.

Traveler

jc said...

What, because you've been in the same job your entire freaking life and you're closing in on retirement? No need to feel guilty about that! Feel blessed. Or damned lucky.