IN YOUR HANDS

If you were 34 years old and in need of work where would you look? If you’re Marion Jones, the former world-class sprinter stripped of her gold medals for her role in a doping scandal, the answer is, “You’d look at your list of skills and try to use any of them to get you a job.”

Jones was released from prison in September 2008 for her connection to breaching drug use policies and check fraud. But as it turns out, she used to play a little basketball and in fact started for North Carolina back in the day (1994). She was drafted by the Phoenix Mercury once upon a time and now, at an age that many pros are losin’ steps and shuttin’ it down, she’s in the market for a career change.

Prison aside, Jones is shrewd using both her notoriety and reputation for being the consummate athletic specimen to earn a living in a world where jobs are suddenly in short supply. I remember being 28 and out of work of my own volition. When you face unemployment, you have a frighteningly immense sea of opportunity to navigate and are in danger of falling prey to jobs that serve as a mere means to an end. But consider Jones and how she went back to her repertoire to do inventory. What skills and passion do I or did I once possess? I did the same thing at 28 when I ended up back in the world of basketball before drifting toward teaching.

For Jones, her decision to play in the WNBA was calculated I’m sure as she evaluated, with help, her athletic condition and prospects of adding value to a professional basketball team. At day’s end however, she consulted a personal strength to see if it might offer her a meaningful transition from Track & Field, from criminal association, from a tabloid worthy fall from grace to gainful and fulfilling employment. Why should you be any different if today you’re lost about the next phase? Where are you strong? Like God told me when I wanted to fold up my tent and go back to a “regular” job, “What do you have in your hands? Use it.”