The Most Beautiful Career No One Talks About

the best job has been trashed

As long as I can remember, when I was growing up, all I wanted to do was go to college. Get my B.S. Get my M.S. Get my D.Sc. And then work at a top-secret research center for science till the day I died. And when that day came I wanted my body to be donated to scientific research.

I was a curious little girl and absolutely loved learning. Being an extreme introvert at the time, I would have been just fine if everyone left me to my books. I didn’t need friends. I didn’t need a boyfriend. I didn’t even need a house.
Heck, I could easily survive with one room. Full of books. (Or so I thought.)
I read every moment that I wasn’t doing something else.
I mean, seriously, I was a nerd on steroids.
And my little black reading glasses were the cherry on top.

Have you ever tried to balance glasses on steroids? Ahem, beside the point.

As I grew up, that dream changed a little.

I still wanted to go to college for a decade to become a scientist, but I changed my mind to be slightly more reasonable:

I thought friends would be amazing.
A boyfriend just might be nice.
And, I’d rather have at least an apartment. Full of books.

However, while in the process of being introduced to the real world, I realized that college costs a whole freakin’ lot of money and it doesn’t even guarantee a good job. You mean, all that effort, money, and time could be for nothing?
Dude, that’s messed up.

But yeah, that’s how it is. Aww, shoot.

This realization made me start thinking more deeply about what I wanted to have accomplished and spent my life doing when I looked back with grey (white, even?) hair.

What did I really want?

There’s a pressure and social expectation in our culture to go to college.

You spend the first 18 years of your life studying.

And then you graduate…
so you can study some more.

You have a career. Retire early. Die old.

That’s the message I heard from books, movies, peers, adults, you name it.

So, if your career was business analytics, then by the time you died you would have spent 40+ years of your life sitting at a desk, banging on a keyboard, bonding with columns and rows, numbers and graphs. Wow.

My goal in writing this is not to lecture you on life’s purpose, meaning, or what makes a life fulfilling. So, I’m not going to. I’m simply going to tell you my theory: The most beautiful, fulfilling, worthwhile “career” is parenting.

Not the easiest, mind you. Far from it.
It very well may be the hardest thing you’ve ever done.

Not the fastest way to retire. Once a parent, always a parent.

Not a get-rich career. I mean, you’re paying for a child’s food, rent, clothes, education, entertainment (sometimes you are the entertainment), and more, all while not getting paid money for it. What a crazy deal.

But it sure is what I’d call beautiful.

Just think about it. You make a human. (Read that again).
And then you get to raise that child. Preferably, with your significant other.

You get to hold that baby.
You get to be there when they take their first steps.
When they say “mama” for the first time.
When they’re waving goodbye, leaving for the first day of school and you can’t see through your tears.
You get to see them grow up. Develop interests. Be a teen trying to figure out life.
When they get their first job. And then, suddenly, they’re off on their own and you wonder where all the time went.

Maybe they fall in love, have a few kids of their own, and before you know it you’re holding your grandchild. So, you take your duty seriously and spoil them beyond belief. (what are grandparents for?)

Isn’t that an amazing career?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying learning at higher levels is bad (I think it can be very beneficial) or that getting a “regular career” is not good.

But I think our culture has gotten to the point where I believe, wanting to be a parent is looked down on. And thought of as, “That doesn’t count as a career. If you want to have a fulfilling life you must have a ‘proper’ job.”

Is parenting not the most influential job in the history of the world? You’re raising and influencing the next generation. Most difficult? Most worthy of honoring those who have and are doing it?

I’m not saying you can’t have a fulfilling life without being a parent, but I think it is one of the most beautiful aspects of living life.

When people ask me what I want to do when I grow up I mention a few interests but always end with, “I want to be a wife and mama.”

They look at me like I’m an idiot. They do a double-take, “No, what do you want to do? Like, a career?”

Y’all. That’s what I want to be. That’s what I want to do.

I know it won’t be easy. It’ll have pain. It’ll have heartache.
There’ll be messy diapers. (am I right?)

But in the end, I know it’ll be worth it.

It’ll be the best career I’ll ever have.