Epictetus Has Me on the Ropes but I'm Coming Out Swinging.

After spending some time with Epictetus' Discourses, I must admit I have some problems. Arrian restates over and over that the goal is to bring ones desires in line with what is actually happening. If one desires only that which in fact happens, one is in line with "the will of god" and therefore in line with nature and will be happy and at peace. The logic of this is simple and reasonable; who can be unhappy getting everything one wants? But it leaves a question about striving to make things better, more just, equitable etc. While being content with ones lot is practical advice when there is nothing to be done, it contains some frightening shades of social control. We do not need to address those things that are wrong because "One should be happy with ones lot."
Now before anyone objects, Epictetus does argue we should not trouble over things outside our control. Perhaps if given the chance to reposte he might state that we should act but without investing desire as to the outcome of the parts of it that are beyond control. I would still hold that it's a pretty fine distinction.
In any case I keep trying to apply Epictetus' teaching to my own situation even if just for an philosophical exercise. I would like more than anything to be a teacher, a professor actually. I have the little matter of that last piece of sheepskin. Even to teach in public secondary school there's some licensing rigmarole. Other situations make those two roadblocks difficult to overcome right now. They are both also decidedly beyond the range of my choice. So he argues that I should be content with my situation and that I should not work to clear those roadblocks because they are outside my control and in the end being a teacher will make me no more content than what I am doing now. I have been a teacher at many different points in my life and I know that a priori being a teacher will not bring fulfillment, but the lifestyle and activities involved suit me in a way that quite simply fits comfortably. There is no greater moment of work for me than that moment when I see the lights go on. I have to believe that divine will does not require that I work in a scene from Office Space for too much of my life. Whether or not computers function happily would not strike me as an item high on the Universal checklist. But regardless of otherworldly intentions, to sit and enjoy the moment without any effort to pursue a more fulfilling course seems to my post modern but more importantly post romantic mind to be the course of one who in fact has no choice. Granted Epictetus taught in a dictatorial, slave holding world where many other people had direct influence over you life and he was in fact a slave and exile himself, but I have to break with him in the realm of events you can influence. I may not control whether I get accepted to a PhD program and I agree that I should not be broken by the decision of others, but I do need to do my best to influence their decisions in a effort to move my life to a place I believe to be better and more productive.