The corporate world and I just can’t seem to reconcile our differences; no matter what job I find, what company I work for and what projects I’m doing, the monotony of the same morning commutes, same mundane tasks, same incessant meetings and same depressing office space inevitably wears my patience to rice paper thin. I can practically imagine the day I say goodbye to this world of Excel spreadsheets, increasingly annoying (and useless) team statuses and bland lunches; I envision it as that moment when Dorothy steps into Oz and her world goes from grey to technicolor. How are people meant to live like this, I wonder? How have we-as a society-allowed a third of our lives to be willingly spent sitting in a swivel chair, our eyes glued to a screen and our fingers typing away? Money is the answer, yet we all fall victim to that Catch-22 of needing a job to afford to live while needing the freedom to enjoy life. We work to live, we live to work-the line between is blurred. As months of “I’ll just stay at this job temporarily” morph into years of settling; those passions that once burned bright seem to become artifacts on a mental shelf that bring to mind Les Miserables and the ill-fated Fantine who sings sadly of how life has killed the dream she once dreamed.
I refuse to look out at my life as an endless sea of watercooler talk, idle office gossip, two hour meetings and client presentations. This world is too vast, too colorful, too full of endless possibilties to spend a mere 10 days out of 365 exploring it. Life is too vibrant, too inspiring, too challenging, too limitless with potential to be passed by with days spent staring unblinkingly at a computer screen-watching as our vision gets slowly blurred, our knees start to ache and our backs become hunched. The corporate world and I will never be friends, we will never find a happy middle ground where I can somehow find joy in spending 11 hours of my day pretending to care about client X and their incessant demands.
I started The Pin the Map Project because I felt I was drowning in my life and needed a port in the storm to call my own. I had graduated college with that same post-grad ideal of finding my dream job, just to overturn every rock-public relations, marketing, advertising-and realize that the allusive perfect job wasn’t anywhere to be found. I started The Pin the Map Project to escape my reality, to inspire myself as much as my readers that life doesn’t need to be what happens after 6pm and on weekends; it can be something that is embraced and enjoyed now. I devoured flight saving tricks, travel hacks, the work of professional bloggers, tips on freelancing and push (even now) to live a life ruled by passion and travel, not e-mails and Powerpoint decks.
I am writing this because I am currently taking a break from freelancimg to work at a temporary office job in an effort to squirrel away money before I embark on assignments around the world starting in August. This brief foray back into the corporate world already feels like I’ve been made to swallow a foul-tasting spoonful of cherry-flavored Robitussin. The ridiculous office politics, the petty gossip, the silly rules that all seem to overshadow the simple (and only important) question of whether or not a job has been done. People who are more concerned with how engaged someone looks in a meeting versus the quality of work they churn out, people whose account of their weekends involves staying at home and replying to work requests, people who bring themselves to tears over a project that will matter nothing the next day. I have no doubt that some of the people I work with are artists, athletes, photographers and writers whose passions live only between the hours of 6pm and 8am; but unfortunately the corporate world seems to care little for these envisionists and renegades-only that they all show up in khakis by 9am the next day.
I read today that Forbes projects more than half the U.S. work force will be freelance come 2020; for our sake as a society I truly hope so. Technology gives us the flexibility to work from anywhere in the world, to communicate with co-workers although we are on different timezones and I hope that in the future we can afford our dreams without being chained to a desk and sacrificing our passions in the process. As work shifts to the digital space, people seem to be embracing the freedom that freelance offers more and more-afterall, why trudge through morning commutes, 9-5 work days and limited vacation time when you can work on a project-by-project basis and control your own schedule?
When I began freelance writing and blogging, The Pin the Map Project was littler more than a free blog with minimal readership that has blossomed in two years time into an online destination that works with brands, attracts thousands of readers, is part of the Mode Media Network and has connected me to people around the world. While money, family and other self-imposed responsibilities factor in, I truly believe anyone can break free of the shackles of a “normal life” and chase their dreams so long as they are determined to do so. My writing is a never-ending process that I adore and it is my hope that through this blog I can inspire others to take a chance and pursue their passions.
You can check out articles on going freelance in my FREELANCE section; and make sure to read my post THE HONEST GUIDE TO BECOMING A TRAVEL BLOGGER! Share your comments, stories and questions on going freelance and chasing your dreams below!
