Career vs. Love

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I just found out three of my co-workers have gotten a scholarship to study abroad for 3 years. I was so happy for them, but at the same time, I thought of how one of them, let's call him Joe, has been in a relationship for 7 years. Joe's girlfriend talked to me a few months back about how she wanted to get married soon. That's got me thinking. A lot of us are so busy climbing up the ladder of success that sometimes we put our lives on hold for that, which raises the question: are we choosing career over love? If faced with the situation where we must choose one or the other, which one would we choose?

Let's imagine that you were in this scenario for a minute. You'd met your "perfect half". He/She was absolutely everything that you'd been searching for. The relationship shouldn't be a monogamous one, because if you add marriage to the mix, the scale will tip at least a little. Anyway, suddenly one day, you got a phone call. Your dream job was on the other line; all the things that you'd been working so hard on. But here's the catch: to get your dream job, you would have to fly to another continent and leave your lover. There was no way around it. What would you do? Which one would you choose?

I want to look at things from all the perspectives. If you chose your lover, you would be throwing a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity away. A lot of us have studied and worked so hard in order to be on top. Therefore, when the perfect opportunity presented itself, wouldn't you want to take it? There are 7 billion people in the planet; surely there must be more than one "perfect half" for you, correct?

According to university maths genius Peter Backus, our chances of finding love are just one in 285,000. That means that in the small city of Phnom Penh, there are about 26 guys that are compatible with me. Subtract that number with guys who are either in a relationship, married, or gay; I'll have more or less one guy. On the bright side, at least it's not one in a million. That reminded me of an episode of "How I met your mother" where Ted was trying to find love via a dating site.

With that being said, we can all agree that finding someone compatible with us is hard. Finding someone whom we can deem as being our "perfect half" is almost impossible. I'm sure the odds of me being struck by lightning is greater than finding two "perfect halves" in a lifetime. Though, that is not saying that it is impossible. I've heard of people who have found more than one "soul-mates". Most of us aren't so lucky. Surprisingly, when I asked Joe which one would he choose, he said he would choose love. He said a person is harder to find. I could not agree more with that. We all want to get to the top because we want to be happy. But if you have to go to an empty house after a long successful day, knowing that you could've had your lover with you; where would be the happiness in that?

Some people would say they would choose both and try to make it work. Although, if someone chooses their career over you, you tend to feel like somehow, you're second best to them. Not only that, but to have a successful career and stay on top, that person has to dedicate a lot of time at work. The strain might break even the most perfect lovers up after a while. The key here, is to balance things exactly right.

Personally, I would choose love over career. If I'm good enough to be offered the opportunity in the first place, I can always stay optimistic and hope that a better deal will come along. If it's meant to be, it'll happen, right? I'm a very intense and passionate person. I don't think I can ever take the pain of knowing that I willingly let my once-in-a-lifetime love go.

But we all know that everyone is different, so how about you? What would you do? Which one would you choose? Feel free to leave comments below.

Love, Catherine

XOXO