Career Choices

I feel like I've made a wrong turn somewhere in my career. My degrees are in Biomedical Photography, yet I do nothing even remotely related to medical photography to earn my living. The shortest way to describe what I do is to say that I draw maps from aerial photography. I've tried other, longer explanations, but this seems to satisfy the question: "What do you do?" with as few words as possible.

The simple truth of the matter is that I'm burned out. I can't stand my job. The room I work in has very subdued (read: DIM) lighting, and would be better suited to growing mushrooms rather than drawing maps. There are no outside windows, an irregular, temperamental thermostat, and a micro-managing "number two" who gets on my last nerve. And stays there for 8 hours.

This is not what I had in mind when I was learning Köhler Illumination. I didn't dream of drawing maps when I had my hands submerged in Dektol, watching excitedly as a favorite image developed before my eyes. I have traded a Mac for a PC, a camera for a puck, my joy in exchange for a "living."

I don't think I can keep this up for the next twenty-four years. I'm not built like that.

But in the meantime, I have maps to draw.