I've been thinking about this a lot lately. For about the past 6 months, I've thought that I wanted to be a journalist, I've called myself an aspiring journalist, I've studied journalism, kept up with the news, etc, but I recently realized that I don't really want to be a journalist. It's not that I have anything against being a journalist, but it just seems like an OK career, and I think I might enjoy other jobs more.
But here's the thing - I never wanted to be a journalist because I thought I enjoyed it. I felt obligated to become one. For as long as I've been able to think about such things, I've thought that truth is the one ideal I hold higher than any others in my life, so it seemed natural for me to become a journalist. I sympathized with others' plights, esp. in war zones, so I felt like I ought to become a war reporter. And that was my reasoning. That was all I needed.
As I thought about it more, though, I've come to doubt the assumption that I should choose a career that I "ought to choose," i.e. a "noble" career (N.B. - I use the word noble because that's how others have described my reasoning, not because I think it's particularly lofty). I suppose at its root this is really a question of whether I think it's worth it to endure a capital-G Good career that maybe isn't as enjoyable than some of my other choices, which are lower-case-g good careers: jobs that I'd really have fun with, and love going to work. I could ramble on about my personal dilemma, but it's late and I really just wanted to start a discussion. So what do you guys think? Should people choose noble professions, or should we do what we love?