“Love” & “Work”: How I Crafted These Words To Mean Passion, Purpose And More In My Life

Photo by Klaus Andersen on Unsplash.

Growing up, I felt that work in my parents’ lives was all that my parents would immerse themselves in. They seemed exhausted most of the time. They made a good living, but they were literally always caring paperwork with them and writing notes. They worked with patients every day. I came to associate the word, “work,” with dread and overwhelm because that’s what I was observing in my parents’ lives. Always struggling to accomplish mountains of paperwork. Taking work home with them. It never ended.

I did not want to grow up without time to enjoy my life. I identified myself as being much different in my personality than either of my parents so I did not know how the eventual unraveling of my life would come about. I still had a fear that I could end up like my parents and become tied to a never-ending workload. In my head, I associated the word, “work,” with a feeling of death of creativity, freedom and exploration.

I was very much different than both of my parents. My mom would casually joke that I was from a different planet. I am very much a creative type. My parents were more logical, clinical and procedural in nature. They struggled to give me any sort of career or work advice in what I should do because they didn’t understand me at my core.