This weeks topic is about vocations….specifically, “Can a Career be a Vocation?” This should lead to several interesting posts! Can’t wait to read everyone’s contributions!
I’ll never forget this retreat I attended when I was a freshman in college. It was a very small retreat (less than 15 of us). Several people got sick last minute and couldn’t come, several people were just overwhelmed with school work and some just were honest and didn’t think the topic appealed to them. The whole retreat was focused around Vocations. But not in terms of becoming a priest or sister. The whole weekend we barely even talked about that. I don’t even remember the actual name or theme of the retreat I just remember talking about “Vocations” a lot and for the first time really learning what it meant.
So many times you hear the word “vocation” and “gods call” and everyone immediately thinks….priest or nun. For the first time I learned the TRUE meaning of the word…that it was what you were doing with your life. If you are a student…your vocation is being a student – learning, doing hw, writing papers, etc. If you have a job that is your vocation if you are a mom that is your vocation. But I just remember being in awe of how your vocation was NOW and we needed to start listening to “Gods call” NOW and not in 5 years when we finish college or 10 years when we have kids or get married.
So what does this have to do with this weeks topic? EVERYTHING. Can a Career be a Vocation? OF COURSE IT CAN! Does it have to be? OF COURSE IT DOESN’T!! Can women have careers? Of course she can, heck “society” tells us women should and shouldn’t let anyone stop them!! Do women have to have careers? No. But here is the thing…if we’re single….unless your rich uncle left you a million dollars or you won the lottery…we have to earn money to live so we are going to need to have somewhat of a career for the time being and that’s okay.
I know many women that have a career as a vocation and many who work from home as well as many that are stay at home moms. But I don’t think just because you are a stay at home mom that that isn’t a “career.” It takes A LOT of work to run a household, raise kids, etc. If I ever get married and have kids I really don’t know if I’ll be able to do both – have a career/work and spend time with my kids and taking care of the household. I really just don’t know. Right now I work and go to school and sometimes have trouble taking care of myself…so the idea of having to get up, get dressed, get my kids up and dressed, and then get my kids to daycare/school as well as me to work by 9am really frightens me and I really don’t want to do it. My sister has worked in a daycare for years and the stories she tells me are scary. So for me unless I am able to launch a bookkeeping business from home or can work from home I don’t know that I will have a career as my primary “vocation” BUT I don’t think it’s impossible.
I guess time will tell. They say when you have kids you get more stamina and it’s not always a hard adjustment to go back to work. And I hope they are right and maybe I will do both…or maybe when my kids are 0-4 I will be able to stay home and once they are school aged I can go back to work. I don’t know what God has in store for me but I think I need to pray about it all the time and take it as it comes. I’m sure if a time came and I needed the income to work when my kids were young I would find a way to make it work.
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