More on the subject of choosing your vocation from Buechner:

In the year that King Uzziah died, or in the year that John F. Kennedy died, or in the year that somebody you loved died, you go into the temple, if that is your taste, or you hide your face in the little padded temple of your hands, and a voice says, "Whom shall I send into the pain of a world where people die?" And if you are not careful, you may find yourself answering, "Send me." You may hear the voice say, "Go." Just go.

Like "duty," "law," and "religion," the word "vocation" has a dull ring to it. But in terms of what it means, it is really not dull at all. Vocare means "to call," of course, and a man's vocation is a man's calling. It is the work that he is called to go in this world, the thing that he is summoned to spend his life doing. We can speak of a man choosing his vocation, but perhaps it is at least as accurate to speak of a vocation choosing the man, of a call being given and a man hearing it, or not hearing it.

And maybe that is the place to start: the business of listening and hearing. A man's life is full of all sorts of voices calling him in all sorts of directions. Some of them are voices from inside and some of them are voices from outside. The more alive and alert we are, the more clamorous our lives are. Which do we listen to? What kind of voice do we listen for?