Being a Professional According to Joe

I am currently taking a class called, "Professional Considerations for English Majors." It's a required class for all English majors who don't have an emphasis in education, or, in other words, English majors who more than likely don't know what the hell they're going to do with their lives after graduation. We're reading this lovely & brilliant book by Tim Lemire called I'm an English Major--Now What?, a title that still makes me grin every time I hear it. It's a great book actually. It outlines several career options available to English majors after graduation. It's some pretty thought provoking stuff, especially for people like me who only have the vaguest of ideas of what their professional futures might be and are basically temporary at best.

I was thinking about this at work. It was the first day of my new job. I'm a tutor/mentor for high school students at Spanish Fork High School. No one came in for homework help so I had plenty of time with my thoughts. I made a list of all the other jobs I've had in my life:

• Sales Associate at Pac Sun 
• Sales Associate at Bed, Bath, & Beyond 
• Cashier/Cook/Stocker at The T-Bird Grill 
• Hostess (glorified waitress) at Courtyard at Jamestown Assisted Living Community 
• Child Supervisor at Red Hills Southern Baptist Church 
• English Language Teacher at International Language Program in Russia (volunteer position) 
• Private Math Tutor at SUU/Vocational Rehabilitation of Utah 
• ENGL 1010/2010 grader at SUU English Department 
• MATH 1030 T.A. at SUU Math Department 
• ENGL 1000 Writing Assistant at SUU English Department 

Some of these jobs were terrible.
Most were tolerable.
One was the best job I've ever had.


That one job was the most recent one, being an ENGL 1000 Writing Assistant. Basically, I was paid to have fun and do what I love. I got to help students become better writers and I became close to them & cared about them. I became better friends with the fellow writing assistants who were also English majors and in my my English classes as well. But the best part was working for Professor Joe Willis. He was the main contributor in making that job so awesome. Joe loved what he did. He had fun in his classes but was also a talented & effective professor. But what I remember/loved about Joe the most was how he redefined for me what it means to be a "professional."

When I picture Joe, he's in his typical teaching attire: a solid colored button down shirt, a tie in a full windsor knot, either a vest or a jacket, the kind with leather patches on the elbows, dark nice jeans, and Converse shoes. He'd have a messenger bag with the Green Lantern symbol stitched on the side. The first time I went in his office (really a closet, poor guy) I saw superhero action figures, a Fight Club poster, and stacks of comic books next to great works of literature on a bookcase. Joe was a professional in his field, and a damn good one too. But, for Joe, being a "professional" didn't mean being boring & stuffy, nor giving up what you're passionate about.

Everyday in Joe's ENGL 1000 class, he would write a prompt on the board that his students were to respond to. One day the prompt was, "What's your dream job?" After the class broke up into their workshopping groups, I told my group, which was situated by Joe, that my dream job would be a personal assistant because, to me, it would be like problem solving. As Joe was walking by, he commented to me, "My dream job is to be a college professor who teaches comic books. Oh, wait..."

I thought about that story when I read a quote from Lemire's book, "I would call a real job any job that pays you a livable wage for doing something that you would do even if you weren't paid to do it." According to Lemire, Joe has a real job. He is paid to read & talk about comic books, something he is going to do anyway.

When I think about what I want to do with my life in regards to something I'm going to do anyway, I keep coming back to writing. Working for the UVU Review has (not to sound too corny) opened up so many other career possibilities that I had never really considered before. The idea of me being a writer for a magazine (not vogue or cosmo but something that actually has some substance) has taking root in my brain and has begun to grow.

However, this idea has been growing under the constant shadow of my natural practicality/cynicism. I have a voice in my head repeating over and over,

"A writer? You want to be a writer? Do you have any idea how ridiculously pretentious and stupid you sound? How do you expect to make money out of being a writer? This isn't Bohemia, sweetheart. Chances are you're going to end up being one of those stupid struggling starving suffering writers with plenty of pages on your desk but no money in your wallet."

But I'm trying to either shut up that voice or ignore it long enough for that idea of being a writer to grow enough to be substantial. I mean, there are writers out there. They do exist. That mean if it works for them, it can work for me. I know it'll be hard but, you know me. I'm driven, passionate, and stubborn as hell. And I am very used to getting what I want. If I want to be a writer, heaven help anyone who tries to stop me.

Love you.
Mean it.