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In this first-person story, Thom Haller, (teacher, artist, user-advocate) illustrates his journey into a labels and back out again.

Raised in southern north central West Virginia (up the road a piece from Flatwoods, the geographic center of the state), Thom learned you are your occupation and assumed he’d awaken someday and know instinctively what he would do with the rest of his life.  

But there was a problem.  The labels offered didn’t fit. And labels others gave him dampened his spirit and left him feeling grumpy, believing he didn’t belong.

Thom's pursuit of the question of "“What do I want to be when I grow up?" pushed him toward Washington DC where he joined thousands of others working as beltway bandits (Federal contractors).   Thom, passionate about life and possibility, found himself working in a mauve cubicle inside a poorly-constructed post-modern monstrosity on land fill at the edge of the Federal City. Something was not making sense!

Thom wanted a job that was true to his spirit. He wanted to use his time to support others. As work offers only “gray” opportunities, Thom must choose. Will he pick lifework outside the cubicle? Or will he answer yes to the question "would you like to work for Norm?"

Thom doesn't want to work for Norm. Instead, he delves into an emerging field. With an emerging label. This works for awhile. Then others use the label as well and Thom comes to a reckoning. How can he respect the power of labels, but step beyond the boxes we create in our own lives?

Want to watch a story unfold and then see how it applies  to your own life?

Contact Thom to bring Information Overload to your meeting or conference.

• View 5-minute Quicktime snapshot about jobs and context
• Learn more about Thom