A Year in Pictures of Working

When I put the job titles after the names of most of the people I write about on this blog, I could easily include "/Improviser." Many of them are something-slash-improvisers, even though the majority of them, myself included make little to no money improvising. And most of them get a little crestfallen when I ask them for their official job description. They often have day jobs they are neither excited about nor proud of.

Months back when I e-mailed my friend, Carrie, asking her for her job title, she responded, "as an exercise in self-fulfilling prophesy, i tell people that i'm an actor/writer rather than my official day job title of executive assistant. the very first time i did that, it turned out that i was talking with a producer for a small production company in Chicago. the next week, she called me with an an audition. ever since then, when people ask what i do for a living, i do not hesitate to tell them that i am an actor/writer. we are what we say we are."

I labeled her as an "Executive Assistant" on the blog. That's the whole bit, the joke, of this Year of Working blog.

I've had jobs that I hated and jobs that I was embarrassed about. I've had so many labels that would make me sad when I glanced down to read them printed out over my heart. In college I could say, "I'm going back to school soon," then after college I could say, "I'm just out of college, still figuring things out." But eventually I was too old to say those things. And I never felt comfortable calling myself an improviser or writer, even though I spent so much time doing those things.

Sometimes, "This job isn't who I am," isn't enough. Sometimes you want to say, "This job isn't even really my job."

I never feel far away from that and I worry that I could easily end up back there.

# posted by Arnie : 2:53 PM