Comebacks & Redemptions

Comebacks and Redemptions

I was having dinner at Restoran Sabang yesterday evening alone. And as usual, while waiting for my food, I would normally do some reading or writing. I bring along my Jornada PDA, a longhand journal and a book with me everywhere I go.

After writing a page in my journal (my daily quota), I flipped through some of my old entries. On Thursday, 16th of January 2003, I noted down something that I read from the Web: The actor Steve Guttenberg (of Police Academy, Cocoon and Three Men and a Baby fame) was interviewed about his career. He commented:

"A career is a series of comebacks".

That became food for thought for me before my real food arrived (chicken chop). We sometimes think that a career is something stable that grows over time. Yes, we do grow as individuals but a job is but a transient thing with many ups and downs along the way. Gone are the days when people remain with one company or job for the rest of their lives.

I have many friends who are thinking of switching careers and industries. The dot-com bust has decimated many of them. Perhaps many of us have been lulled into complacence for too long. We are never too old to reinvent ourselves. It takes discipline and great willpower.

I have an ex-colleague in the States who is now taking chemistry and biology classes so that he can go into biotechnology and environmental engineering. He is a constant source of inspiration to me.

As for me, I'm always reinventing myself in the background. I want to take the example of Tim Robbins' character in The Shawshank Redemption--the Stephen King prison novella that was made into an award-winning movie.

With just a small metal spoon, the character played by Tim Robbins spends years slowly digging a tunnel out of his cell, unbeknownst to his fellow prison inmates. One day the inmates found his room empty, except for a large poster of Rita Hayword on the wall. Tearing the poster apart, they saw a tunnel hidden behind it that led all the way out to freedom.

Perhaps one day too, I will find my freedom. But I must continue digging...