“How does one make peace with the idea of a job just being a job?”
I think this is fairly easily achieved by choosing to be okay with it, and having things outside of work that really make you look forward to heading out of the cubicle each day. Cubicle life = happiness? I don’t think so!

“If I did what I really wanted to do, I probably would go to grad school and shift my focus back toward writing and reporting.”
It seems to me you already have these skills if you have been editing!! As a freelance writer, you could be totally in control of your own income, working as hard as you want, and making as much as you want. Have you read some of the excellent blogs, especially the Renegade Writer, and Freelance Switch? They are beyond awesome!

I hope you find what you are looking for, and that you can discover that happiness comes from within. The greatest luxury and happiness in my life is to be in the arms of my husband. I wish you equal joy!

Mikala

I’ve been married more than a year, and we want to move closer to our family and friends. But there are no jobs there in what we do, so we continue to work at places that offer us no satisfaction except for a steady paycheck, merely because we’re (maybe more like I’m) scared to death of not having money.

We had talked to our parents about the idea of us moving closer to them, and they were less than thrilled about it because we didn’t have job prospects. We’re both in newspapers. One of the nearby papers in our destination area closed, and the other big one has implemented major pay cuts and layoffs. Our papers have had problems. Meanwhile, we’re not getting any younger. But I suppose we wouldn’t be happy if we moved somewhere and couldn’t get a job, either.

I don’t know how people can just up and leave, or change their lives in huge ways. I guess they don’t care what others might think?

We’re both considering career changes. My husband feels much better about his choice (police work) than I do about mine (accounting). I’m not fully convinced that I’m making the right decision. I might make good money, but that has never been a job requirement for me. Journalism doesn’t make us rich. I’m just really good with the money we bring in. I’m drawn to accounting because it requires accuracy, something on which I’m extremely focused in my current job, and good communication skills – both things that I feel are lacking in present-day journalism. I can crunch numbers. But I want to love my next career, and I don’t know if I can. How does one make peace with the idea of a job just being a job?

If I did what I really wanted to do, I probably would go to grad school and shift my focus back toward writing and reporting (I’ve been an editor since graduation) or new media, or get into elementary school teaching. But the last thing I want is get out of school and have tons of debt and make less than what I do now.

I’m sorry this is long. A lot of my friends or co-workers would love to drop everything to be musicians or Broadway actors or stand-up comics or to travel the world. I just want a job I like (love?) in a place where my husband and I want to live.

As for article links, here are an article on “funemployment”: http://www.sfweekly.com/2009-06-03/news/funemployment/

I was curious about these twenty-somethings you mentioned, do you have a blog or story link?