If anyone ever thinks that the right career or the best kids will somehow make everything right in their lives and worlds, they will only be disappointed.

Everyone needs to find many things that they are passionate about, excite them, challenge them for the good, that they can aim for and achieve.

All this talk that a person can only have a positive mark on the world through their career is limited, and more than a little naive. Some can and do make a mark through their jobs, touch other people's lives. Most of us don't, not through the efforts and outcomes of our actual work.

I like my job. I'm good at my job. My job is important to where I work. I can affect a lot of people. But the bottom line is, my job is about keeping computers and applications on line at a university... that the work of the university continues on. That's great. If it wasn't me doing it, someone else would be.

My volunteer work teaching young children, my working as a mentor to other adults are things that excite me, where I feel I have the most impact. Sometimes its in our roles in others' lives where we'll have our most important impact on the world... be that as a parent, a friend, a mentor, a teacher, etc.