Cars and Jobs and Haruhi

Not exactly a comparison people will make. I’d have put a picture on here, but I’m way too lazy to do so, and this article has been sitting in my drafts pile for too long.

A few months ago I was involved in a car accident. I won’t really get into details, but it wasn’t that bad. On the other hand, it could VERY, very easily have been bad. It took me about a week to really get over it.

Next, involves my job. I graduated with a degree in aerospace engineering, but I’m working as a software engineer. A job’s a job, and I am thankful that I even have one right now. In any case, unless you are really good or really good at selling yourself, it’s rather difficult to find a job in the defense and aerospace industry. I can’t say I am good at either. That’s not to say I’m bad, but I’m finding it hard to stand out from the crowd of job-seekers.

On the topic of jobs, there’s also Steve Jobs. His death occurred right around the same time I had the accident. Now, I know everyone and their mother has probably talked about the guy. Well, I’ll just talk about the impact his death made on me. I am not much of an Apple guy. The only Apple thing I own is an old iPod. To sum it up, the guy followed his passion. In context with my car accident, the now infamous Stanford commencement speech he made in particular, struck a chord in me:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” –Steve Jobs, Stanford commencement speech, June 12, 2005

Not soon after his death, I decided to finally watch The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. I hadn’t read it yet, and I’m really good at avoiding spoilers, so I came into it without any prior knowledge of the story. I won’t spoil anything specific, anyway, but if you’re paranoid about the stuff, you can skip this. The conflict Kyon had to face within himself with regards to Haruhi feels very similar to the conflict I’m facing now. But, unlike Kyon, mine isn’t as clear of a decision.

So all this happened around the same time, and it got me thinking about where I am now. Where does my passion really lie? I don’t think I’ve found it yet. I always thought it was in the aerospace industry. But I don’t know, since I’ve never really immersed myself in that field as much as I would have liked. This also applies to my hobbies. Certainly I enjoy watching anime, playing games, taking photos of cosplayers, and talking about those aforementioned topics, but I haven’t found that special thing that makes me want to put extra effort into it. To do something amazing for myself and possibly for others too. So, my search goes on.

And I didn’t exactly publicize this article, so even if you stumbled upon this months later, feel free to comment. I enjoy talking about this stuff.