Thinking With a Purpose

For all of the jobs I've had across my career, I can definitively point out the major dislike of all of them. While it seems to be a highly technical job, drafting is largely a regurgitation of basic ideas and techniques.

Take, for instance, CAD drafting. There are a variety of commands to input, repitition of keystrokes or mouse clicks that get things done. There's even a geometric ability required to figure out not only how to draw certain objects, but how to "CAD" them in the fastest possible way. A drafting style, if you will. Now, while I may be fast, none of these things require me to think beyond a certain level. It's all done automagically. I'm familiar enough with ways of drawing lines, modifying them, measuring distances, converting distances or what have you, that it comes second nature. The ability to sketch out what something will look like from a different angle is not really difficult, only time consuming to figure out what will be seen, not seen, or be seen beyond the current section.

At the moment, my current job is at the same time the most basic (sketching out already designed ideas) and the most lucrative I've ever had. It involves nearly no design work, very little interaction with ongoing problems in the real world or communication with those outside using the products I create. I've had more complex jobs before, with lesser timetables and lesser pay.

What should seem obvious by now, is that I've been bored. And have been for quite some time.

And now I'm back to the same question of what do I do, and where do I go, from here? Can I ever afford to go back to school to enable me to do something more complex? What should I go for? Maybe I should be in an artistic field, with somewhat free reign to do what I want. I don't think I would be happy with the complexity without freedom that engineering (while lucrative and technical) would provide. I can similarly see issues with computer programming or system management.

Maybe I should ask my dad. He'll probably tell me he knows me better than I know myself, and knew I was on the right track 5 years ago (going to college), but didn't have the ambition at the time. I've certainly grown since then, and yet feel stagnated.

I wish I had the time to sort it all out.