Metafiction

Metafiction

    I am a lawyer in New York. I work for a biggest law firm in this area. I earn a lot of money, so I’m rich. Many people envy and respect me, but in fact, I hate my job. I always wanted to be a writer, but instead I chose to be a lawyer. Why? Every time I told people that I will become a writer, they convinced me that it is very hard to ‘succeed’ as a writer, and if you don’t succeed you’ll be a loser. Well, I definitely didn’t want to be a loser, so I changed my mind. However, the stress I’m getting from my job is getting more intense. I can’t hold on to it anymore. I want to run away from it, but I am afraid. I don’t know what to do. I think I need somebody’s advice. The first person that came into my mind was my father.  

     After a long time, I visited my father. When I confessed my worry, my father began to speak. “This is a story that I want to tell you. Now I am an old man waiting to die, but once I was an ambitious young man just like you. My goal in life was to become a successful person. At first, I tried to earn money to get rich. I believed that earning a lot of money would bring me success, as many other people say and wish these days. I put all of my effort on earning money. Soon, I became indifferent to everything but money. I became distant with my family, friends, and happiness. I realized that I was going to the opposite direction of success. Finally, I began to wonder what a true success is and searched for the answer.”

    Then he asked me a question. “My son, how can we define success? Success is a vague thing to chase. Many people want to succeed, but they can’t define what success to them is. Unless there is a satisfaction, there can’t be a success either. What could be some common standards that people use in order to define success?” I replied, “Fame and wealth are probably the top two standards which people are trying to achieve”.

 He continued speaking. “I think we have to define success in other ways. Fame and wealth are not the most important things. True happiness should be the standard of success. Then, what is true happiness? Some people may say that fame and wealth is there true happiness. I don’t think that makes sense. Fame and wealth will not bring happiness to you. For example, fathers go to work every morning to earn money. Fathers’ don’t go to work to earn money; instead their wish is to live happy life with his family with that money. Then, what about the fame? Being famous means being loved. At least, one can feel that way. Everyone wants to be meaningful and needed by others. Now we can think about success that is not about fame or wealth.”

After having a conversation with my father I realized that success is not about wealth and fame, it is about doing what I want and being happy. Yes, I might earn less money with writing. However, true success is pursuing what I’m happy with. Now, I will boldly abandon my secure job and I’m going to start a whole new life with a new career.