Who am I?

As we sat together enjoying a cup of chai after her massage, a long-standing client of mine opened up. She was concerned about her 18 year old son who seemed lost, unsure about which path he should take in life. More worrying for her was that he seemed listless, and she didn’t want that to turn into something more serious…

Who am I?

I remember as a young person wanting to be a hostess with Air India – a career path my father thought unworthy (he would have much preferred me to be employed in the public service).

And the same question arose for a much older friend of mine… she wanted to join the RAF and her father refused to allow it… “No daughter of mine will do this!” So much for the career paths of women in those days! But still, the essential questions remain.

Who am I? What will I become? What should I do now?

And the hardest of them all… what if I have no clue?

In my experience, clues arrive out of the blue. And they come in all sorts of guises… someone you meet by chance, a mentor who points you to something you hadn’t thought about before; a thought that comes in the middle of the night. And let’s not forget all the people who will tell you not to aspire above your ‘class’ (absolute rubbish!).

We can change our world

I was that air hostess with Air India, but it is not who I am today. My older friend never joined the RAF but she trained to be nurse… and that was still not ‘who she was’. She eventually became a Theatre Sister, the principal aide in hospital operations. And like me, that was still not ‘who she was’.

My point is this: my client’s young man is trying to decide who he is. But who he is, is not set by what he does now or even for the next ten years. He can get a job packing groceries, selling vacuum cleaners, study law, or do nothing. None of those things will determine who he is (though they may seem like it at the time).

Remember

To him I would say “Remember this: your job description is NOT who you are.” Why? Because I know with absolute certainty that Life intervenes… out of the blue it will send you a clue – something will happen, someone will say something, and everything changes. There is no religion or science to it. It is just Life, working for you. Just begin. You never know where Life will take you.