By Michael Reynolds

Columnist

As I told you in my introductory column, Joseph Campbell is one of my favorites. Bill Moyers interviewed him for a documentary entitled “The Power of Myth,” which I have watched at least six times. All right, so I’m not a very exciting date. Each time I watch it, though, I get some new insight about myself, others, or the nature of our existence. One principal that Campbell espouses that I attempt to use as a guide for my decision making is to “follow your bliss.”

This may at first seem somewhat hedonistic (which may be enough to convince some of you). To me, however, it is really the best way to assure success in life. With the focus on following  bliss, one will likely have to forego chasing money. In my experience, this is not only an acceptable trade-off, but actually preferable.

Time after time, the story has ended the same way for me - I would take I job I didn’t want just to pay the bills and then quit because I no longer felt like I was growing in my skills and/or my interest. Roadblocks continued to show up in my life as I continued to ignore my inner voice. As I got older, it seemed even more important to me that I find stable employment, start a family, and do all the things that are indicative of a “responsible” lifestyle for someone my age (yeah, I love saying that).

The last real job I had fit the bill perfectly. I was managing a hotel with over 200 rooms that had a restaurant and banquet facilities with over forty employees under my supervision. Of course, I was being compensated fairly for my effort and was moving toward financial stability. Then one day while preparing for one of the banquet events, it became so clear to me that this was not what I wanted for my life. I enjoyed what I did and I did it well, but it wasn’t enough. That night the owner and I decided that moving on would be the best move for me.

As a result, sweeping changes came into my life - most of which were not pleasant. The relationship I was in ended and I had to move back in with my parents. Woo-hoo! Life was looking grand. What happened for me in the months following, however, made it all worth it. At that time, I decided I would never take a job solely based on money again. If I did not feel compelled to work there, I wouldn’t do it.

Since that time, I have made decisions based on what I feel I drawn to do. The first step was getting back into school to finish my B.A. here at UIS. When deciding on my major, I looked at the list of degrees offered to find what interested me most rather than what I thought might be most lucrative. Having chosen communications, I can tell you that going to class has been much easier with subject matter that I want to learn.

Because of my interest, I have not only been able to succeed in my studies, but I have also developed great relationships with some members of the faculty, which will be a great benefit as I begin to gather letters of recommendations for graduate school. As far as my selection of graduate studies, I almost went back to my old ways. Although I was most interested in religious studies, I was persuaded to broaden to the field of sociology. Why? That’s right, because it’s easier to find a job in that field.

Well, I came back to my senses and as my reward I have found two schools in the San Francisco Bay area - which is where I have been trying to get back to since I left there four years ago. Now there’s some bliss for ya. So, I guess I would just suggest that you ask yourself, “If I didn’t have to worry about money, what would I do with my life?” and begin to move in that direction.

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