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Passion, Careers, and Disability

How do you decide?

Decide what to do,

What the future holds for you?

I don’t understand, one goal,

One goal that somehow

Supersedes them all.

 

How do you choose?

When passion flows through you,

For not just one, nor two,

But many life paths, careers,

It all means something to you?

 

I feel lost, thinking of the future.

I’m floating by, trying to find,

Something that could spark

More than mere interest,

Something that could captivate,

Hypnotize me for long enough.

 

Because you see, I flit from one

Passion to the next, one minute

I am drawing, the next sewing,

The next it’s animals I love,

Or how about teaching children?

 

And I sit here empty, not sure

Which path to take, which goal

To make, to work towards,

Because right now, I’m in

The inbetween, no job,

Not in school, what do I do?

 

But the reality is, I’m trying to find

That one magic passion,

That somehow works with my

Disable body, since almost everything,

I find it all exhausting.

And my mind is spinning circles,

A dog chasing its tail.

 

Why can’t I do it all?

Why can’t I just enjoy life, enjoy

All of the things it brings,

And take my time, because I’m

So tired, of trying to figure it all out.

Tired of planning, I’ve never been

Too good at planning, when there’s

So many things occupying my mind,

So many things that I desire.

 

But even then, even then, if I could find

A goal to work towards, a dream job

For right now, well that takes work

And it takes time, because it

Turns out it’s all a ladder that

We all have to climb and being disabled,

Well I feel left behind, not sure

How to move forward when

I also have to go up, and going

Up has always been so draining.

 

I must work now, to somehow

Get somewhere I would rather be,

But what do you do when most jobs

Require me to be on my feet,

With my level of experience,

And education, limiting me?

It’s like I have to hurt myself

In order to hopefully some day,

Live a better life, I guess that’s why

So many say, ‘suffer now, and

You’ll get your reward later’

 

I tried university, tried college,

But you see, being disabled,

Has made them  difficult for me.

At least, in the ways that I was pursuing.

And now I’m stuck, trying to find my way,

How to get out of this rut, this mess,

All around me while being limited

By my own body, when I’m so used

To trying so hard to keep up

With the rest of them, charging

At how much money they can earn.

 

Money, it always comes back to money.

And money stresses me out,

Makes me more sick, gives me more

Pain that I would ever like to be in.

Well, apparently, money is

Supposed to be the solution.

 

Not so easy when the job market is crap,

I didn’t come from money, so I had to

Start off with nothing, and make my own way.

But where do you start, when

All your ‘now’ prospects seem

Rather lackluster and all you can do

Is prepare for a future.

 

Strange to think that we’re told to

Live each and every day like

It’s the last one we may ever live,

When we have to spend our beginnings

Stuck in preparing, deciding, and striving

For a future, so hard to make,

When all you started with was

A journal to write in.

 

I just want to live now,

I want to live everyday,

I want to spend more time

Cultivating all this passion inside

Of me, it’s bursting inside of me.

 

But there’s this rut, this anxiety,

This fear, of having to build a life,

No, a career. So that I can live

In the future, instead of now,

So that hopefully, we can get by,

Scrape by, by the skins of our teeth.

 

Tired of working crap jobs,

That I don’t really like, where we’re

Unappreciated, and paid to barely live.

Overworked, underpaid, I’m in so much pain.

My body, can’t stand in this pain,

But that’s all I can do is stand.

In pain, at a cash register,

Or making drinks, no consideration,

Of the struggle it is of being disabled.

 

Because we all have to able.

Able to stand, to push, to work

Your ***** off, until there’s nothing left,

You’ve given all you’ve got, and then

Some. Soul ******* career bent,

Work too hard, to fit in.

You got to be a workaholic to fit in.

 

Well I can’t keep up with that pace,

And I see it wearing people thin,

People that have more strength,

More drive than I ever did.

How are we supposed to live,

When you have to work to live,

And, in turn, live to work.

It’s extremely exhausting.

 

All of this jumbles inside me,

I can’t breathe, can’t decide,

How I’m supposed to live my life

When everything screams

On all sides, that I’m supposed to be

Running, supposed to be rushing,

And that all seems so wrong.

 

I just want to live a life that has meaning.

Something meaningful to me, that I can

Actually enjoy each moment as it passes

Us all by, I don’t want to rush life

Before it all ends, I’m so tired

Of trying to run in this ‘rat race’

It’s not a race, I need a slower pace.

I demand a slower place.

No more running, no more racing,

It’s time to live in the now,

No fear.

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Written by
michelle-brunet
27 / Gender Nonconforming / Canadian
Published
Mar 2, 2019
Lines·Words
150·940
Notes

© Michelle Brunet 2019

Tags
#disability#careers#ablism#existential#crisis#fear#life#goals#job#hunting
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