5. Searching for
self in work and love
When asked about the
meaning of life, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud replied Arbeiten und Lieben, working and loving. It is in these two areas of their life, in career preparation and
in their search for meaningful relationships, that today’s emerging adults
explore their identity. These are the
areas in which they want to find out who they are and what can be expected of
them. And the end product of this
search is ideally that they have learned: 1) to take responsibility for
themselves, 2) to make their own decisions, and 3) to become (financially)
self-sufficient. These are what they
believe to be the marks of being an adult.
It is only after they have achieved these three goals that they feel
responsible enough to enter a committed relationship with a life partner, to
marry and to start a family.
In
searching for a suitable career they want to discover what sort of work they
find satisfying, what sort of work they are good at and what sort of work gives
them the best chance of remaining gainfully employed throughout their life.
So,
in the area of educationally preparing themselves for a career they may change
their major in university a number of times in order to be well prepared. Then, once they graduate, they usually try
out a number of jobs, all of them aimed at laying the groundwork for their
life’s vocation.
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