Transcript:
- Hello, and welcome to the "What's Career Got To Do With It" podcast, where we hope to provide a space for honest conversation and information that encourages the listener to take the next steps in their career journey. So, wherever you're at in this process, we hope this episode will meet you with affirmation, guidance, and maybe some laughs along the way.

- On today's episode, we are joined by Meg Wilson, the Duke Career Center's Associate Director for Communication and Outreach. As we discuss an answer, or many, to the question, "How do we merge our purpose and future with our identities, goals, and everything else that makes us who we are?" Meg, how do we do it?

- Oh wee, that's a big question, isn't it? Good morning.

- Hey, Meg.

- Good morning, it's exciting to be here. A little nervous, not used to talking about myself and my thoughts. I love communicating what you all wanna tell people.

- Well just think, we don't have microphones, we don't have headphones.

- We're just hanging.

- It's 3:00 snack time in the office.

- Beautiful.

- Yes.

- Beautiful.

- No, I'm happy to be here with you all and thinking about this is an amazing question.

- And I gotta tell a story, I think, before we even get into this. When I first started at Duke, so about two years ago now, or actually over two years ago, right Angela?

- A little over, yeah.

- A little over two years ago. Stacey, at the time, was walking me around the office and telling me about our coworkers, and she just looks at me and she goes, "I just love Meg. I just love Meg, the presence that she has. I wish I had that patience, that demeanor." And ever since then, I witness it every day. I know we all do, of this way about living and going about work and life that I think we all respect. And so to kinda shout out Meg for a second, and say, thank you, Meg, for carrying that around the office. We love you for that. We appreciate you for that.

- Thanks so much, that's sweet of you to say. Stacey too.

- Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I think for real, when we started this particular conversation, we were thinking about this common refrain when people ask how somebody's doing, and this is for what I've come to learn, is predominantly a response that comes locally to the United States of a response that is a, oh, I always have to say, I'm doing well. I always have to say that something good is happening. I always have to say that like, "Oh, it's good, it's going well, I'm living the dream." And that's where this comes from. And you know, I think some days we embody it, some days we don't, and I would love your take on that.

- Living the dream, that's a thing, isn't it? And I suspect for everyone, the dream changes every now and then. I know it has for me. What comes to mind for me is Beyonce, of course. In "Pretty Hurts."

- Yeah, okay, okay.

- What is your aspiration in life? To be happy. And at different times in my life, happiness comes in different ways. I would say primarily, relationships with people, connections with other people on Earth that have the same worries and things that I have. And that's probably the most important. This, very important to me, also in my aspiration, is to have work where I can contribute and be a part of something big happening, and offer something to that. And I take away a lot of joy from that as well. So the happy is not always smiling, but having the strength to get through and having a moment to think about what I want. Having the resources to make some choices. That's about it for me.

- What about everybody else?

- I like when you said, just like, having the opportunity to make some choices, I like that. I think living the dream is like, again, making a choice to live the dream, regardless of if it seems like what the dream should be. So I like that.

- Yes.

- And what do you think, Rudy?

- He gave Kai a microphone, he just puts people on the spot.

- Yeah.

- And then he passes it away.

- Well, the only reason why