by Ariele Chow

Created on: August 15, 2009

When did careers take over our lives? It seems that one's job consistently comes before anythingor anyoneelse. How often have you seen children wish their mommy or daddy didn't work so much, or lovers part because their locations of opportunity didn't match up? When asked to rank priorities, most would probably rate family, friends, and relationships at the top of their lists, but for very few is that ever true. So many people let their work take precedence, even if it is unintentional.

It is easy to get caught up in the frenzy of projects and deadlines, especially if your boss or team depends on you. Yes, everyone wants to have their dream job, but which love is greaterjob or human? Which is your "one great love"? Of course, being brought up in the modern North American society we know today, we want both and we truly believe we can have both. But what if you could only have one? Which would you choose? The love of your life and a job you aren't in love with or the career you're excited for every morning, but not with the one?

In my humble opinion, there will always be jobs, but there is only one true love with whom you know you want to spend forever with, for better or for worse. The one that makes you smile by just saying hello. The one whose voice could comfort and console you if the Apocalypse was to occur. The one whose arms make you feel like they're the safest place in the world. The one that can make you light up by walking into the room. The one and only that truly understands you, even when the rest of the world disagrees with you. The one that would do anything to be with you. The one you would die for.

Call me old fashioned, or even nave, but I believe that love should prevail over alllove for human beings, not for a jobor any object for that matter. Yet, at the same time, I find myself being sucked into the tumult of the career-oriented lifestyle. I fear that my priorities are being compromised in the search of the perfect job when I've already found the love perfect for me. If this is the kind of lifestyle we are to accept as the norm, I don't want to take part in it. Let me be an outcast, because I don't want to live in a world like this.

I haven't believed in fairy tales for a long time, but maybe life is a love story, just a different kind. Maybe I'm destined to live in a tragedy, always longing for my Romeo.

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