My Dream Job

If you ask me, the world renowned philosopher known as Jack, many things in life are backwards. We spend enormous amounts of our childhood in school being instructed about many important topics. It is hard to argue against education and I am certainly not going to do so.

But the hard thing about a school education is that it doesn't always prepare you for the real world. It doesn't give you the sort of life experiences that you can only find outside of the classroom and in some ways that is tragic.

The human life span is very brief. You are born, you hit middle age and then you die. It doesn't provide much time for you to venture out into the world and learn about who you really are and what you like. Far too often you find that circumstances require you to spend your time working in places and situations that are not suited for you.

There are a variety of reasons why this happens, but not the least of which is that sometimes you cannot know until you try. You may think that you were born to be a teacher but until you hit the classroom and get real life experience all you have is your suppositions and expectations.

Most of us do not grow up knowing exactly what we want to do. Most of us have an idea or two, but we are not really sure so we just muddle our way into new things and hope that they work out.

I am no different. When I graduated college I had this dream of becoming a sports writer. It didn't happen. I am not a sports writer and haven't been one in years. Can't even claim to be a writer who moonlights as a sports writer, a la Mitch Albom.

But that is ok. I am not some 25 year old kid who wishes that he could cover the Lakers or Dodger's beat.

These days I have slightly different dreams of what and how I want to spend my time, not to mention, with whom. Life is a funny sort of creature.

I am a native Angeleno. Forty years spent in the great City of Angels and I have never cared at all about being a part of the business. Know all sorts of people who are. Writers, directors, producers, agents, I have friends in every category, some of who are quite successful.

And until recently I never cared one whit about being a part of that world. But a while ago something changed. A while back I realized that I really enjoy writing these Fragments of Fiction pieces.

I really enjoy trying to tell a story. It makes me very happy and I think that it could be fulfilling. So suddenly I find myself thinking that writing is really where I want to be. I find myself thinking about making a movie. I find myself thinking about how cool it would be to translate the things I see inside my head onto paper and then onto film.

So now I find myself wondering if I should pursue the dream. I don't care about being famous, in fact I don't really want to be. I want to be able to live my life without concern about being tabloid fodder. But it would be very cool to write a book and or a screenplay. Now I want the chance and the experience.

I may find that I hate it, or aspects of it. But I know for certain that I won't ever get tired of telling stories. It won't grow old for me. So now all I have to do is figure out a way to do it and fifty percent of my dreams will come true.