Before I quit my job to start school, I had worked in what I'll call the book industry for about 20 years. I got my first bookstore job in the summer of 1989, after my freshman year of college. With the exception of a few brief periods totalling about a year & a half where I worked at a clothing store, a record store, & as a full-time art class model, I worked in bookstores until 2001. Then I worked in publishing, then back to a bookstore, then back to publishing until now, 2010. I never felt like my identity was tied up in my job, but I have realized that, in a way, it was. Not with any specific job, but part of how I thought about myself was as someone who worked with books. The world of books & reading has always been a huge part of my existence. I'm the younger of two children & I can remember realizing that everyone in the house could read...except me. And it killed me! So I learned as fast as I could & I haven't slowed down since. Working with books seemed the most natural career for me to have because reading was definitely the thing I spent most of my spare time doing. And it still is.
When you tell people that you work with books, they seem to assume, right or wrong, that you're smart. They at least assume that you read. So I considered the possible change in people's perception of me when I decided to make this move. About 98% of the time when I told someone I was planning to go to beauty school, they said, "That's perfect!" or "I can totally see you doing that!" or things of that nature. But two people responded in the way that I feared. One of them said something like, "Hunh...THAT'S what you want to do?" with the implication that it was a strange move for me. The other person (a very smart woman, I should add), actually said,"You're too smart for that." She backtracked pretty quickly & admitted that the stylists in the salon where we both went were all very smart & quite well-educated people. But I had seen what her first response was. In a nutshell: that's not a career for smart people. Which I then extrapolate to: when people meet me, will they not think I'm smart anymore? It seems a funny brand of shallowness for me to worry about this, but I do.
When you tell people that you work with books, they seem to assume, right or wrong, that you're smart. They at least assume that you read. So I considered the possible change in people's perception of me when I decided to make this move. About 98% of the time when I told someone I was planning to go to beauty school, they said, "That's perfect!" or "I can totally see you doing that!" or things of that nature. But two people responded in the way that I feared. One of them said something like, "Hunh...THAT'S what you want to do?" with the implication that it was a strange move for me. The other person (a very smart woman, I should add), actually said,"You're too smart for that." She backtracked pretty quickly & admitted that the stylists in the salon where we both went were all very smart & quite well-educated people. But I had seen what her first response was. In a nutshell: that's not a career for smart people. Which I then extrapolate to: when people meet me, will they not think I'm smart anymore? It seems a funny brand of shallowness for me to worry about this, but I do.
first!
ReplyDeletethis is exciting. YOU are exciting. I'm excited.
write more so that the people who love you can be part of your adventure.
Jason
As someone who worked in the book industry and has spent a great many hours in a stylist's chair I always felt I wasn't smart enough to do be one!!!
ReplyDeleteHaving worked in publishing for quite some time, I'd say you are much too smart NOT to be going back to school to develop a skill you'll have forever.
ReplyDeleteSmart people are the ones working hard at the things they love.
"too smart"? snotty much?
ReplyDeleteplease, you don't have to be smart to work in the book industry, i've worked in it for as long as you and i've lost intelligence in the process.
also- you shouldn't give a shit what people think of your career. do what you've chosen (and write in your spare time - you're really good at it)
Mcleary said it best with the last line in his post.
actually, smart is the only thing that will really earn my loyalty in a stylist. i have to want to talk to them for an hour to come back.
ReplyDeletethere are people who are too dumb to realize that working with your hands - be it in hair or, say, in carpentry - requires a lot of brains. i wouldn't worry too much about those people.
Hear hear! to what McCleary said: "Smart people are the ones working hard at the things they love."
ReplyDeleteA very smart older woman once said those exact words, "You're too smart for that," to me in response to my telling her I wanted to open a bar/cafe someday. I was 22 and those words brought me up short. They stuck with me in a way that was actually kind of limiting for a while.
I think now that it was a generational thing. When the woman who said those words was 22, she was already married and following a husband at the expense of her own career. To her, my non-professional ambition was freighted. At 22 the idea that any career choice would be limiting didn't factor into my ideas. Now I'm so grateful to feminism for that. I'm also grateful that I've figured out that feminism means different things to different generations.
Anyway, you're fighting the good fight for all of us who are trying to figure out if what we do is actually what we love.
Love the post. I think we have all been met with a statement like that at least once in our lives. The people who make the statement assume to know more about ourselves than we do. They have these preconceived notions as to what types of professions aren't suited for us and what types are...as if they really know what it takes to be successful at a particular type of job. I never measure my job or profession through the eyes of another. Why? Because what makes me happy doesn't necessarily bring the other person joy. So, don't be too concerned how other people see you or your profession. If what you do truly makes you happy, that's all that really matters. Besides...those very same people who criticize your chosen profession are doing it, I guarantee you, in the comfort of your stylist chair. :)
ReplyDeleteIt really is rediculous the value judgments our society makes on work. Seems it is a pesky human habit to judge and categorize and crave hierarchies. I'm so sick of dealing with it! Thanks for writing about it.
ReplyDelete