What Color is My Parachute?

Years ago, I found this old book in a rummage sale called What Color is Your Parachute? I bought it because it had been mentioned somewhere (I’ve forgotten where by now). But I didn’t get to read until last year, and I wished I hadn’t let it gather dust in one corner because it answered a lot of the questions I had been asking myself for so long.

“When you choose a career, you have got to know what it is you want to do, or else someone is going to sell you a bill of goods somewhere along the line that can do irreparable damage to your self-esteem, your sense of worth, and your stewardship of talents that God gave you.”

“What turns you on? If a thing turns you on, you’ll be good at it; if it doesn’t, you won’t.”

So I made the decision to leave and look for a different career and I ended up in Singapore. I accepted the first IT job that was offered me, but it was admin-related and quite boring. Then I got retrenched and I panicked and sought out a job that I had some background in – which was what I had struggled so long to escape from in the first place. Back to square one. Like I had learned nothing. As the days went on, it all came rushing back to me, but I told myself to sit it out, to force myself to wear “the boots” a while longer because it feeds me, clothes me, houses me, pays my bills. I had forgotten all about Steve Jobs and Wesley and looking for my parachute color.

But something happened yesterday, and devastating though it was, I guess it’s a sign that I must not ignore this time. The decision had been made for me. So I must look, I must not settle. I must take control. And I must find the color of my parachute.