Every job is worth doing
By Jessica Berget, Opinions Editor
With the holiday season coming up, the time for relatives to ask you what you’re doing with your life is once again upon us college students. “What are you studying?” and “What do you want to do when you graduate?” are common questions within this line of interrogation and unless your answer is something impressive that satisfies them like becoming a doctor or a lawyer (not to say these careers don’t get shamed as well, to some degree), the response is often “Oh, why did you choose that as a career?”
“You’re going to be a teacher? Hah, have fun with that,” is the exact sarcastic response I get from almost anyone I tell my career choice to, and you know what? I will have fun being a teacher, because I love children and education and that is what I want to do with my life. However, teachers don’t get nearly as much flack for their career choices as, say, people who want to be writers or artists, or even cashiers. If that is what people want to do with their lives, then let them. These jobs are important and serve a purpose in many different ways. Everyone has their reasons for wanting to have a certain career, and they don’t owe anyone an explanation for their decisions.
There are also people who didn’t get to choose their careers or get the job they wanted, and are shamed for not “living up to their potential.” Some of these people might be forced into their full-time jobs because of a variety of factors: They might have to drop out of college for financial or personal reasons, they might have children and are forced take a job to support their family, or the job they were working towards didn’t pan out. Whatever the reason may be, that does not mean that they failed with their life or should be mocked in any way. It just shows that life is funny like that, and that things don’t always go as expected—especially when it comes to career paths.
Whether a person is a doctor, a manager, or even a fast food employee, they should not be shamed for their work. No matter what jobs people decide to support themselves with, that is no reason to shame or mock them. If the work they choose to do wasn’t a job worth doing, then it wouldn’t be a job.
