One thing it mentioned was that human beings can’t help but try and form memory into a story… when we remember our pasts we retell it in the form of a story: a narrative.

This made me think about how we might work out what we want to do with our lives, and in a sense what we need is a story: an interest we’re passionate about; ourselves as the hero; overcoming an obstacle; having a revelation; and experiencing a change… a lesson we can recount to our juniors in the grand old tradition of the fireside storyteller… we’ve all got a book in us, so it’s said.

It seems the more we “advance”, the less easy it is. Most of life seems to be heading towards being almost entirely “online”; ourselves as blobs plugged into machines, producing and consuming.
I think many of us WANT to have varied, interesting lives, as we did before the Information Revolution.
My own story has been one of ten years at top unis “striving for greatness”; somewhere along the line I realised I was “pretending” to be interested; and really, every job I really want to do is a “sub-degree”-level one.

I wonder, with the government so keen to pile so many people into uni to make us “productive staff” of “UK PLC” in response to the evils of globalisation, perhaps they ought to make it easy and desirable for us to retrain several times in our lives in a wide range of different careers… architect, fisherman, nurse; why not?

Having said that, we’re entering rough seas economically now; so we didn’t ought to romanticise careers; but we all as a country need to hit the brakes and stop destroying ourselves in the quest for money.

I’ve now finished school, am working full time at the job I set out to have, and could very easily stay here for the rest of my days. I should be exceptionally happy with where I am, but I’m more worried than anything.

Growing up I didn’t know what I wanted to be, but I knew the type of person I wanted to grow into. I wanted to be that interesting old guy who seemed to have lived a dozen different lives.

Many days I wish I was sailing the open seas instead of programming in front of a computer, but I’m sure if I was sailing the open seas I’d have days where I’d wish I was just sitting in front of a computer. It’s hard to find that pleasant middle-ground.

I always try and make sure I grab a coffee break or go for a smoke when he does so he can regale me with stories of the sea, even though he does sometimes go a little bit Uncle Albert – “During the war…”

If only they taught us what we wanted to be when we grew up at school though. I went to college cos everyone else did and studied stuff I wasn’t that bothered about and got some A levels and got a job. It was only about 2 years into my current job I was struck by a thunderbolt and actually knew what I wanted to be – and it had sod all to do with my job!

So now I’m doing an Open University degree in Physics and plan to have my Ph.d by the time I’m 40. Perhaps I’ll work for NASA, maybe ESO, but it sure as hell will be doing something I actually want to do.

“If you don’t have a dream…” and all that