In Matt Haig’s, The Midnight Library, the main character searches within herself to determine what defines a fulfilling life. According to my kindle, the line “an unfinished jigsaw of a human,” appears in the beginning of the book (12% in), but for me, it sums up the entire story.

The author traps a young woman between life and death, in a library, with an infinite number of books as the metaphor for all the choices she’s made. She’s tasked with choosing from distinct realities that could become her life. That is a puzzle—and of course, it made me think.

The line works for the author’s character, and I love the image it invokes, but what human being isn’t an unfinished jigsaw? Our society puts a gross amount of pressure to “finish” things, most notably, ourselves, but are we ever “finished?” I hope not.

Careers For Life

So many people seem to have it all figured out. They have direction. They don’t worry about which path to take, it’s all very clear to them. I always envied my college roommate because she knew she wanted to be a doctor. She’s retiring at the end of this year, but she’s not “finished”—she’s starting a new chapter.

I never had an obvious career choice. I loved to read, so I majored in English, went to law school, and used that degree in my work as a human resource consultant. I’ve also taught Mommy and Me music classes and an elementary school gardening program. I am unfinished, and half-way through my life, I’m realizing that’s okay.

Pressure To Choose

As my daughter applies to college, this line rings loud in my head. At seventeen, she’s clearly an unfinished human, and she’s tasked in deciding where she wants to live for the next four years, what career she wants to pursue. She also needs to present herself in an application to admissions representatives who will judge her mostly on test scores that illustrate such a small piece of the puzzle that she is.

My son, a sophomore in college, also struggles with a career choice, a direction, what path he should take at the fork in the road. It seems like everyone around him is sure of what they want to do. When I told him I suffered the same struggle at his age, that I had no passion or idea what I wanted to do, he said, “Well you always wanted to write.”

He’s right. I had forgotten.

When Are We Finished

So, I tell my children, it’s okay. You don’t have to decide today or tomorrow what you want to do—that part of you can remain unfinished. What you can decide is to do the right thing. Put 100% of yourself into your educational journey. Commit to giving something good back into the world. Whatever career path you choose doesn’t “finish” you. It’s okay if your direction changes or ends or morphs into something opposite of your first choice.

The goal should be to keep learning and changing so we can grow, because if we’re “finished,” aren’t we dead?

Thanks, Matt Haig, this is one great line.

If you can relate to this great line, I’d love to hear from you! Please scroll down and leave a comment.

If you’d like to read more about The Midnight Library, click here.

If you’d like to read about me and why I started this blog click here.