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The Career of a Lifetime

It has always been my belief that people work to support their lifestyle. When they are in their late teens and early twenties, they usually want to earn enough money to buy cars, clothes, and other items that help get them noticed at local gatherings, a ritual known as dating. The goal of this is usually to attract someone of the opposite sex. The purpose in the grand scheme of things is to find a spouse. Once the partner is found, plans for marriage and family come into play. As important as jobs are, they somehow begin to take a backseat to the career of having a family.

Most people begin work long before they start their life's career of having a family. They study hard to earn a degree in college and begin a chosen path of employment. They often use this opportunity to prepare a foundation for family life. They save to buy a home big enough for the expected children they plan to have someday.

What began as two people dating has turned into a married couple with a home, perhaps a pet, and now children changing the course of how time is used. The work changes as people adjust to the expectations and demands of family life. The career, or life's work, takes on a different focus as dreams change according to circumstances.

The wife often takes on the role of domestic engineer. She is kept very busy with her chosen work, as well as a career that requires basic maintenance of the family home. This includes, but is not limited to the balancing act of juggling a diverse display of personalities coinciding and clashing with each other at a moment's notice.

The husband too has his role to play. He becomes involved in fixing up the family home. He often ends up coaching the local youth sports team, as well as climbing the corporate ladder of success to ensure financial security. All of this is done in an effort to put children through college and pay for proms and weddings.

Together husbands and wives juggle the demands of family life, which include determining what is best for their children, and paying bills. Homes around the world share the conversations of who will take baby to daycare, and who can't pick baby up because of a late meeting with new clients. Common discussions take place about where to go on vacation, and what to do or purchase to make the home more special. Many times these talks are much more basic. They focus on how much extra money is needed to fix the car, or how to spend the much needed tax relief that is in the mail.

All the while, these same individuals save and plan for retirement. Their goal is to spend more time fulfilling their life's work. Their legacy is a loving family that carries on the family name. They have spent their life's work developing and creating a unique and wonderful family unit that is bound by love. The purpose of their job is to provide for their career, having a family. If they could do so without working so hard, perhaps by winning the lottery, they wouldn't hesitate. And neither would I.

Learn more about this author, M. J. Joachim.
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