Why Youre Good Enough, Smart Enough, and Goshdarnit - People Like You!

Why Youre Good Enough, Smart Enough, and Goshdarnit - People Like You! Watch Me Explored by ivan amezcua and  found via kind over matter Im currently spending the bulk of my summer working with 8 different groups (I call them Operations!, because its funner), one of which is Operation: Career Actions Activated! This group is comprised of peeps who know what they wanna do when they grow up, but need to figure out how to make it happen in the semblance of their real, every day life. Meg M. Ryan is in this group, and when she wrote a letter to her Vampire (thats the voice we all have in our heads that sucks the good stuff outta us) to explain why she was good enough, smart enough, and goshdarnit! people liked her enough to make her career dreams possible, I died of amazeballsness. Thankfully she agreed to let me post it here, so you can all die of amazeballsness too.  Dont worry dying of amazeballsness is a good way to go. Dear Mr. Vampire, I am good enough, smart enough, and goshdarnit enough people like me to make my career flourish because. Well, my darling blood-sucking pimp, it just occurs to me that YOU ARE ASKING THE WRONG QUESTION, and you are probably doing it just to try and THROW ME FOR A LOOP. (That pisses me off a little, V., and you will hear about that later.) The real question you should be asking is WHY ISN’T EVERYONE doing what they love, that makes them flourish and makes the world a better place? Ohhhh, right! Because then vampires like you would have nowhere to go, nowhere to tap a tasty draught of that vintage you love so much that’s FERMENTED BY FEAR. Not cool, V. Not cool. Now, this is probably a total cliche, but really, when you say shit like this to me: “Who do you think you are to try to make a career out of ‘spreading the gospel of music’? There are millions of people all over the world with a lot more pressing problems than whether or not they play music, and many (if not most, if not the vast majority) make their living sitting in a cubicle, working at Target, cleaning toilets â€" for $15 an hour or less! What makes you any better than them?” I would have to say something like this back: “Well, Vampy, who do I think I am NOT to? You paint a pretty ugly picture there: cubicle dwellers, minimum-wage laborers. Are you suggesting I join them? Is the goal for everyone in the world to be an impoverished, exploited, non-unionized worker? Try again, pal.” And then you’d say something like, “No, no, I’m just saying you should do something that’s WORTH something! Be a doctor or a lawyer, or what was wrong with that PR job you had? That PAID WELL, and it was with a RESPECTABLE company. You’re just MESSING AROUND doing this stuff.” And to that I would sayâ€"very softly, after stepping into the other roomâ€"“Oww.” Then I’d come back out and say, “Well, V., I know that back when you were my age several hundred years ago, careers worked differently. Those troubadours and alchemists were a pretty nutty bunch, and I can understand how you wouldn’t want me running around iwth their ilk. But things are different now. Because we’ve spent the past 50 to 100 years alienating ourselves from the things in life that bring us spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing, we need people who bring joy into the world more than ever. And I am JOYFUL, KNOWLEDGABLE, and ATTUNED to that soupy, messy stuff that makes life, well, ALIVE. And I’m organized and enterprising to boot. So I don’t have to be a lawyer or a teacher or a publicist to OFFER VALUABLE SERVICES and GET PAID WELL FOR IT. Oh, and also, having fun in life is not MESSING AROUND.” That’s what I would say. And then, as you slink off into the shadows, I would remember how all of the fears, doubts, and hangups I’ve given in to or repressed or got into a knoc-down, drag-out brawl with have given me many of the strengths and awesomesauce I have today: self-discipline, responsibility, the tendency to view material overstriving with a suspicious eye, pretty impressive credentials, and a healthy dose of humility â€" and even the experience of being a depressed, underpaid, rudderless cubicle dweller. Gratefully, Meg **************************************************************