By Felipe Camargo de Oliveira 

I have to admit that it’s getting harder and harder to update my LinkedIn. I don’t even usually access it, actually. Not only because I hate this social network (full of lame motivational speeches and storytelling by startupers who never miss an opportunity to embarrass themselves), but because… well, that’s what I’m going to talk about.

For those who don’t know, in addition to being a copywriter, I’m an artistic workshop facilitator and therapist at Casa do Todos, a mental health institution I love, every Monday morning. And now I’m in my second degree, this time in Psychology.

Between one thing and another, I’ve done postgraduate studies in technology and arts, studied graphic design, told stories in hospitals and in an indigenous tribe in Argentina, gave lectures on art and mental health, took a gardening course, installed sinks in houses of retired priests (did you know priests retire?), studied management and mobilization for the third sector, helped install air conditioning, gave private tutoring for university entrance exams, wrote and illustrated a children’s book, reviewed others…

You might think my journey is really weird. You’re right. What can I say, if it’s true? Not to mention that it’s stuff that doesn’t fit or make much sense on a copywriter’s resume. But it defines me. As a person and as a professional too.

So what happens? Every now and then I open my corporate profile just to applaud and wish success to my friends, and I run into a little professional identity crisis: am I a copywriter & therapist? How are people going to understand this? How can that be?

It impacts my work routine. Until today, only Fome has embraced this craziness by allowing me not to go to the agency on Monday mornings. By the way, folks, I’m super grateful for that!

I’m grateful not only for myself but for the reflection this allows me to make today, which I can share with more people in this so-called market.

The thing is, I’m not the only one in this situation. We, people, little human beings, can no longer reduce ourselves to just one professional goal. Life is not like that, is it? Even though our work choices are important to focus on our careers, what defines us morally, ethically, intellectually, emotionally… goes far beyond that. It goes far beyond just one choice in life.

A parenthesis: after all, reducing a person to their professional identity, to their work, asking “what do you do?” at a party to someone you just met, who benefits from that? Who gains from this socially formed fixed idea that we are what we do, we are employees of something or someone, we are the time we spend and that others employ? Have you ever asked yourself those questions?

There are many out there who change careers little by little, either due to market contingencies or immaturity when choosing a college at 17. There are also many who make horizontal career jumps or decide to invest more time in a hobby and find themselves professionally happier that way… and there are some who, out of desire or need for money, combine jobs and professions. I have the privilege of being in the first group, but not everyone in this situation is. Well, that’s another conversation.

What I want to highlight now is this: I really don’t know what to put on my profile because I – and you too, even if you don’t admit it – are volatile, we change, we move, we rise, we fall, we sprout, we fill, we leak, and we want to be in constant motion. Just like water in a river.

*If you read this and thought of “I don’t know what to do with myself” by The White Stripes, high five o/