Please Note: See p. A

For all practical purposes, Wikipedia does a good job of providing some context as to what I will be commenting on:

Existentialism is a term that has been applied to the work of a group of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers who, despite doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual.

blah, blah, blah...

One of the major concepts of Existentialism is that known an absurdity and reason, which combined refers generally to the idea that there is no meaning to be found in the world beyond what meaning we give to it.... Existentialists look at where people find meaning. Existentialism asserts that people actually make decisions based on the meaning to them rather than rationally. The rejection of reason as the source of meaning is a common theme of existentialist thought, as is the focus on the feelings of anxiety and dread that we feel in the face of our own radical freedom.

Lately, I've been putting a lot of thought into what my end goal in life is: (i.e., to try new and exotic things, to meet new people, to spend time with those whose company I enjoy, to own expensive things, etc.) I don't know what that goal is, but I do know that to have a job and work is, in and of itself, not it. My career should be a vehicle to what I want in life. That is not to say that a job cannot be an end goal - sure, if you love your job and love what you do, then God bless you. But for me, and many people I've spoken to as of late, my job is nothing more than a generator of angst, unrest, and doubt as to what direction I would like to take.

I'd like to lend a quote from the film American Psycho (2000) where Christian Bale's character is talking to his significant other and she asks:

EW: "You hate that job anyway - I don't see why you don't just quit."
And Patrick responds satirically,
PB: "Because I want to fit in."

I think for a lot of us, we're unable to allow ourselves to fail. It's simply unacceptable. Our rationale is a combination of the following statements we make to justify inflicting malice on ourselves: I've invested 4 years of college to earn my degree in (fill in the blank) just so that I earn my rite of passage to work in a (prestigious company of your field), one which the oblivious general public in other fields deem as successful, glamorous, and reason to be proud. I've also taken several certification exams that tell the world that I ought to be well qualified for my job and love it ever-so much, yet in actuality, I would rather trade all of it for a simpler and more enjoyable way of life - step away from it and never look back.

BUT, we fear that society would view this alternative of pursuing what you want in life as an epic fail. People will view that not as a defiant act of doing what you want to do on your own terms, but as a deviation and weakness because you have "given up" when things appear difficult. Hence, I too, do my job "because I want to fit in," which is the stem of all these Existentialist thought about life, what it means, what gives ours meaning, and most importantly, can we find the courage to depart from what "reason" dictates, and instead embrace our own freewill towards the pursuit of happiness.