Life Changes

For the second time in my life, I'm about to start a job that I will not be embarrassed to say I do. The first job was a short-lived one that, unfortunately, created years of anxiety and self-consciousness after it ended. After that I held jobs that paid the bills (sometimes) but wasn't something you really wanted to talk about at cocktail parties or reunions.
I have not married. I'm not even close. I don't have my own place. I've done a little bit of traveling, but not enough to make up for a really crappy job description. The dream, apart from find Prince Charming who wants to whisk me away to Europe on his private jet stocked with episode of 30 Rock and the Simpsons, is doing something amazing for a living. It's not the same as actually having a life, but it was always something that I thought would sorta make up for it.
For the past 2 1/2 years I've been working for a bookstore, which isn't the worst thing, but having gone to an Ivy League school...ending up in retail is a bit demoralizing. You'd be ringing up someone's purchase of "Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul" and getting in a conversation with a customer.
"So how do you like working here?"
"It's not so bad. Good discounts"
All laugh
"Where did you go to school?"
"Columbia"
Silence.
"Well, at least you're surrounded by books."
And I smile and nod and die a little on the inside.
There's nothing wrong with an honest day's work for a semi-honest day's wage - no matter where you went or didn't go to school. Especially in this economy. Rocket scientists will most likely be pouring us coffee...those of us who are lucky enough to afford to buy coffee and not just make it with used coffee grounds and napkins-as-filters. The next person who helps you at the GAP might have once been a financial adviser. So in the grand scheme of things, working at a book store isn't all that bad.
But it still hurt when I thought about where I assumed I would be at this point in my life.
Thankfully, and in what I'm dubbing a total and complete confluence of luck and a fluke, I'm starting a job on Monday that I'm proud of. Not sure what exactly I'll be doing, but working for a major city orchestra is head and shoulders above anything I've done in the past.
I may not be married, or even close, but finally I won't have heart palpitations the next time someone asks me what I do for a living.