It seems to me that a lot New York cab drivers had other professional lives in their native countries. When they arrived in the United States they could not practice their former professions so they drove cabs to make a living. They were someone else...in their other lives. They may have had a professional identity that they had to leave behind while they now build a new life.
People may have no idea that the man or woman driving their cab was a doctor or teacher but they left that life behind. Their identity has to be re-established. Who they are professionally and maybe how they view themselves personally. I think it can feel frustrating...knowing what was and possibly feeling no recognition of that.
That's how I feel and have felt for awhile. I have found myself saying I was this or that. I draw on past experiences to define who I was. I was on TV...I was the Executive Director of this or that nonprofit.
I have been on this journey towards something else and I have not quite clearly defined it. Feeling the need to do just that... I seem to reach back to what was. That's not really helpful when I am working on going in a different direction. But it's safer. Safer to describe what was as if it's some type of validation for what will be.
Not quite sure that works. At some point one just has to let their history be their history. And their future be their future. And the key may be to stop trying to define what it is and just live it.
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