Choices

“How many things did you try before you settled on owning a restaurant?” asked one of my young employees today. 

“I was eighteen when I started working in restaurants,” I replied.  “So I guess the answer to that is, ‘Not too many…’”

Earlier, I’d had a short conversation with a few of my other girls, about educational choices and my feelings about them.  We had been discussing a former employee who aspires to become a surgeon.  Smart as a whip, I have no doubt this girl could attain that goal.  Unfortunately, she is also a little hoodlum.  She’s achieved very little of note in her high school career.  Histrionics, drama and a penchant for coming this close to running afoul of the law have been her hallmarks.  But, you know, it seems unfair that, if a child aspires to a career as a doctor, she has to start minding her p’s and q’s at about age thirteen.  High school performance is hugely important when it comes to getting into a good medical school.  I personally think it’s ridiculous that a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old’s indiscretions could put a serious damper on her career aspirations.  In fact, I think it’s criminal that  fourteen- or fifteen-year-olds should be required to have career aspirations.  Let them be children, for god’s sake.  They have an entire lifetime to grow up and shoulder adult burdens.

What about me?  What did I want to be when I grew up?  I had no idea, which is how I ended up where I am.  And it’s not a bad place.  I could be worse off.  But I could also be…somewhere else.

I’m smart.  I have a good mind, a tremendous memory, and I know how to turn a phrase decently.  When I was in high school, that meant I tended to excel in English.  But nobody told me what I could DO with that.  Continuing education, for me, appeared to be the opportunity to go to college, study my ass off at great expense to my parents and myself, and come out after four years with a degree in…English.  Ugh!  What the hell was I supposed to do with that?  Teach?  Not hardly.  Go on to a masters and a doctorate?  I was not a great lover of school…I wasn’t particularly attracted to the idea of becoming a professional student.

So, I didn’t go to college.  I passed on that experience and went to work at the local pizza place instead.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

Now….NOW, I know I could have…should have…gone to law school.  I think I would have made a hell of a lawyer.  But I came from the wrong social stratum…the idea of a law career wasn’t even on my radar screen.  Ever.  To me, college meant either liberal arts or biting the bullet to get some kind of degree I could “use.”  Like accounting or something equally depressing (not to mention completely counter to any talent I possessed…)  My family didn’t know any lawyers.  We didn’t move in those circles.  So studying law never, ever entered the picture.

Do I regret that now?  Do I consider the option of dropping everything I’m doing to go to college and on to law school?  I’d be, what?  Sixty-two years old when I got my degree?  What the hell would I do with it?  Who wants to hire a bright, up-and-coming OLD lawyer?

No.  It’s past time for those kinds of career upheavals.  I’ve made my choices.  I’m an entrepreneur now.  I own a restaurant.  And I’m here to tell you, it’s no less of a challenge than going back to college and getting that law degree would have been; but at least I have two years of it under my belt already.  Owning a business uses a huge skill set; you have to wear more hats than you ever knew existed when you started out on the endeavor.  It’s an uphill climb every day.

And I think that is precisely why I do what I do.  Any regret I might feel that I didn’t do something more “worthwhile” is shouldered aside by the pressing reality of my never-ending to-do list.  There are days that I am completely overwhelmed.  But, for the first time in my life…I’m happy with what I do for a living.  That has to count for something.  In fact, I think it counts for everything.          

Tags: choices, careers