Preserving My Identity Through Reading

Maintaining My Worldview Beyond The Corporate World

Just started reading this book

Hello, my lovely bookish friend!!!

Welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books. Have you been reading this week?

This week, I read a post by

Books and Musicque

: What Is Your World Made Of. It hit me real hard. Because it addressed something I myself have been feeling since I’ve gotten into the corporate world.

I’m one of those lucky ones who more or less enjoy the work they do. However, it’s not about the task itself, it’s about the lifestyle it pushes you into. The whole atmosphere where it’s all about the company, the meetings, all the people with their heavy titles, all the projects, all the clients, all the data sheets– it feels like quicksand, ready to suck you right in. 

And it’s not my office, our whole society is programmed this way. Recently, I met someone and he asked me: what do you do?My immediate thought was oh! I do so many things! But I knew that he was asking me what I do for a living, so I told him about my job. But something inside me felt really uncomfortable at the idea of having to define my identity by my job. 

I know this is no new groundbreaking idea, but it was my first time experiencing this firsthand. And since then, I’ve made it a point to fight back, to not let my job take over me, to not even think about work before turning my laptop on and after turning it off. 

One of my major tools for this has been  reading. I'm reading more and more, even when I’m not reading, I’m watching videos, or reading posts about reading. Because reading is like a doorway to the entirety of human knowledge, the entirety of the human experience.

Reading reminds me of the world that exists, has existed for ages and that will continue to exist for ages, way beyond the span of my job, my company or the entire corporate industry. There are things to learn, things to know, things to wonder about. I do not want to be that frog who has spent his entire life in a well and therefore thinks the well is the whole world. I might physically be trapped inside the well, but I would still love to learn about the limitless world beyond, that can never be contained in a well, no matter how imposing the well looks to me. 

So, I read more aggressively now, more intentionally, I’ve even gone back to reading physical books, to have that experience of reading. When I go to bed at night, the thoughts inside my head should be about things that are of importance in this world, were important a hundred years ago and will remain important a hundred years from now. A deliverable with a tight deadline is critical, but not as critical as we are sometimes made to believe.

And in fact, this mindset helps me do my job, because it frees me from that crippling fear of making mistakes, so I can work freely. I do not hate my job, but I am also not my job. I refuse to be. 

What about you? Would you feel comfortable to have your identity defined by your job? Don’t forget to let me know.

For more of my bookish ramblings, you can also find me on Instagram

Also, if you’d like me to write for you, you can contact me at joyiewrites@gmail.com

That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻