It sort of bothers me that certain, manual jobs are considered to be lowly, not something you should aim for. Young people, now are sold the idea that you must turn your passion into a career, you must go to university and study for years and make connections, all to get to that room at the top. This is fine, but when it’s all young people are told, they grow up believing that they will be somehow less than everyone else, if they don’t do these things. Then, when there is any reluctance to work a simple, manual job, the same people who sold them this idea turn around and call them lazy and entitled. Near the end of my last year at college, I made up my mind that I didn’t want to go to uni, I wanted an apprenticeship, or a job. Whenever a tutor asked me about university, and I told them that, they would immediately treat me like I wasn’t in the room, anymore. No help, no guidance, nothing.
And no, I don’t work in the field I studied. I work a standard, boring job at a local retail company and it suits me fine. I want to work a low grade, manual job. I want a job I don’t have to think about in my own time, physical, repetitive tasks that keep me stimulated (moving things, cleaning, arranging), enough money to get by should the worst happen. And no, I don’t adore my job, I don’t thrive in my work. If I had the option to sit on my arse and do nothing for the rest of my life, I probably would. But needs must, and this is fine. That is it. That suits me, so why is that not enough? Why is that beneath me? If I had the opposite attitude, and turned my nose up at such a job, I have a feeling I would be called snooty, or spoiled. There is no winning.
