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A reading from The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker

鈥溾�楶ay attention,鈥� Susan Sontag once advised a young audience; she was speaking of the creative process, but also of living. 鈥業t鈥檚 all about paying attention. It鈥檚 all about taking in as much of what鈥檚 out there as you can, and not letting the excuses and the dreariness of some of the obligations you鈥檒l soon be incurring narrow your lives. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.鈥�

To stay eager, to connect, to find interest in the everyday, to notice what everybody else overlooks鈥攖hese are vital skills and noble goals. They speak to the difference between looking and seeing, between hearing and listening, between accepting what the world presents and noticing what matters to you.鈥�

Is anyone else in here familiar with the movie masterpiece 鈥淔erris Bueller鈥檚 Day Off鈥�?

In the movie, Ferris famously says:

鈥淟ife moves pretty fast. If you don鈥檛 stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.鈥�

Of course, he then skips school, picks up his bestie, and then forces said bestie to commit an act of fraud so that they can get Ferris鈥� girlfriend out of school. The fraud includes borrowing his bestie鈥檚 dad鈥檚 Ferrari, which they proceed to take into downtown Chicago for an adventure.

The story of my vocation journey doesn鈥檛 include any of those things… sorry to disappoint. But it does include the importance of stopping, looking around, and thinking about the ways that you choose to spend your time.

I always knew that I was interested in communication and media. I have always loved visual media – especially television and movies. I鈥檝e also always enjoyed speaking in front of others. I gave my first public speech when I was in 7th grade. I joined the speech team in 8th grade and even won a state championship when I was in 11th grade. When I started college I thought I was going to be the next Katie Couric. Shortly after starting my first class on media writing I realized that having to interview people for a living was a special kind of nightmare for me. The desire to be a journalist was born from passion, but it was the passion of an analyst, an observer, not the passion of a professional. I already had passion for my profession, but I had not yet noticed it.

In fact, I have only recently realized that my vocation has been a common thread throughout my life. When my kids were old enough to start Sunday School, I volunteered to teach my daughter鈥檚 Sunday School class. I did that for several years. Then, right before the pandemic, the person who had been the director of the Sunday School stepped down. No one else volunteered to step into the role, so I said I would do it. For awhile, I told myself that I did it because no one else would. But when I stopped to think about it, I realized that I very happily avoid volunteering for all sorts of things.