Self-Understanding

[dewline]

If you grow up in a civil service family, everything to do with government comes back to your sense of identity sooner or later. Like it or not, want it or not. You are raised and trained in those terms. Your parents may not even realize it.

Comments

[thewayne]

I've spent almost my entire working life working for government at one level or another, trying to improve processes and help people who directly help other people. I could have made a lot more money had I gone to the business sector, but I chose not to. I had dinner with a friend a couple of years ago, we worked together 30 years ago and do very similar work. He told me that if I were to move to the Washington, DC area that with my skills I could pull down six figures. My problem with that is I'd have to live in the DC area and what I would be doing probably wouldn't be directly or indirectly helping people. His wife later said that when she chose her college major that she was looking for the ability to make the most money with the least time spent in education, and she succeeded. And I kind of pity her for it. But if people are happy with their sole purpose of making money, then who am I to criticize.