#Profession

An occupational sorcerer who peers into the abyss of numbers to foresee future calamities, exploited by insurance companies and firms alike. Reluctantly devours past data and proclaims "this outcome is highly probable," thus loosening both people's minds and their wallets. When unpredictable accidents occur, they deftly evade blame, yet when predictions hit the mark, they are hailed like gods. Ultimately, they are a tragic puzzle craftsman who tirelessly types out oracles destined to fail someday.

A career is the accumulation of footprints that were supposed to be of one's own choosing, only to find oneself ensnared by others' expectations and the pitfalls of resume screening. It is also the farcical pilgrimage toward the summit of a tower swaying on the scales of evaluation, constantly lifted up and dropped. In the end, one realizes that the only thing denser than the journey's start is the rush-hour crowd on the commute.

A nurse is the nocturnal guardian who juggles patient pain and her own sleep deprivation. She listens to the drip of IVs and stares down EHR systems while swimming the border between life and death. Fighting battles around the clock, she is deprived not only of gratitude but even of a seat in the break room. Bearing the weight of lives entrusted to her, she never removes the mask called a smile. Neither hero nor cleric, just a human fretting over the next dose.

A profession is the gathering of individuals who wield arcane jargon and specialized skills to persuade clients that their invoices are worthy of respect. Though a single business card may confer an illusion of order, the endless deluge of emails and meetings delivers the true tribulations. In exchange for high compensation, professionals willingly dive into mountains of paperwork and the ritual of queueing at bureaucratic windows. By the time they master the art of deflecting client requests, the boundaries of their own expertise have blurred beyond recognition. Ultimately, their titles roam freely as intangible life forms, while the bearers themselves are lost in administrative limbo.

Professional ethics is a convenient doctrine that loudly proclaims self-interest paramount while conveniently ignoring colleagues’ skills and rewards. In meetings, one chants “ethics matter,” only to fold under the divine mandates of profit and promotion in practice. Laws and regulations serve merely as reference manuals; when targets beckon, ethics leaves no room for even a shred of scruple. As a euphemism it shines center stage, yet is quietly sealed away in the name of cost cutting behind the scenes. Ultimately, professional ethics is nothing more than a sophistry to justify results.

Vocation is the so-called divine summons that serves as the ultimate excuse to conceal one's own inertia. Humans delude themselves into believing they are uniquely chosen to escape the banality of daily life. In reality, the ability to judge whether the assigned task is burdensome is abandoned, leaving only repeated rituals of self-indulgence. Celebrated grandly on the stages of faith and philosophy, the mundane duties at the workplace are universally ignored. Vocation is the crystalline embodiment of humankind's self-deception where nobility intersects with escapism.