Monday, August 28, 2017
I Changed Careers Repeatedly In My 20s—Here’s What It Taught Me
www.fastcompany.com: “I want to be a strawberry picker when I grow up!” my 6-year-old self exclaimed after a fun day at the U-pick berry farm. “Sure, honey, you can be whatever you want, as long as it makes you happy,” my parents graciously replied. But by age 8, I’d filled my room with stuffed toy dogs and issues of Dog Fancy magazine from the local library, proclaiming instead that I’d one day become a veterinarian. By 16, I knew I was meant to be a baker, and my library checkout record was short on Dog Fancy and long on recipe books.
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5 comments:
I feel that the American public tends towards a philosophy of 'live to work', rather than 'work to live', insofar as the common 40 hour work week comprises over a quarter of the 168 hours that comprise each week. Thus, I find it unfortunate that the public often stigmatizes changing one's career. With what limited time we have on this planet, why don't we deserve to spend those few hours doing something we love?
In a conservatory program, it can at times feels like you have committed yourself to one career path and one industry too soon. I am in love with the work we get to do in our industry but there are times when I wouldn't mind a bit more freedom in our program to study broadly and perhaps stumble upon something I would never have expected was suited for me. I have seen my brother graduate from college with a degree in a field he then realized he doesn't actually enjoy working in and have to scramble for jobs for a couple years until he found something he enjoyed. I think simply keeping your mind open to the possibility that the One Thing you have your heart set on doing might change or be replaced puts you in a much healthier relationship with your work. Staying committed to a work path after you have stopped getting any satisfaction from it is a miserable state that will end up making you resent your work. We spend the majority of our lives working, I see no reason to not at least try and find work that is personally fulfilling, even if you take an unconventional career path to get there.
This article is really encouraging because as we are raised people are constantly telling us we have to choose one path, we can only commit to one thing. Much like the author I went through phases of wanting to be different thing when I grew up. And when it came to deciding what I wanted to study for college I felt so much pressure to decide on a path I wasn't comfortable choosing. Yes I love what I am doing now, but what if in five years, I don't want to do this anymore? That idea only scares me because I have been told once I choose I have to stick with it. This author has a very positive outlook on wanting to do and actually trying to do many different things. What they see is them just gaining more experience and knowledge from all the mediums of careers they have tried.
In a society that constantly equates time with money, it was refreshing to read this author's take on how your time is ultimately much more valuable than its monetary counterpart. I also experienced a similar process of going through a multitude of interests and hobbies before I landed on something that made the most sense for myself as an artist and a student. This fluctuation of career choices becomes increasingly daunting as one grows further into their 20s and 30s, as the author states. I completely agree with the author in that your happiness is also ultimately more important than success, since happiness has been one of my only concrete goals in life among my myriad of other short-lived hobbies. I think it can be extremely advantageous rather than troubling to be a multi-faceted individual with numerous interests, talents, and ultimately careers-- it certainly makes for a more interesting and colorful path in life.
I love the author hit the point to do what makes you happy. That is something I feel is very important and not stressed enough in our society. I have always lived by a similar idea but mine being about doing what you love. However, in prepping for college and always getting that question: “What do you want to study,” or “what is your major.” When I told them what I specifically wanted to do everyone would always say, “you are lucky you know what you want to do already; most people spend college and even thereafter finding out what they want to do.” I got this regardless of whether they believed it was a good major or not and it shows are societies expectations very well. We are expected to know what we want to do with our lives by the time we finish college but we also need to have an idea by the time we start college. However, I think that one point she hit was hugely important and that people should do what makes them happy, even if the get really excited about one thing and then the next and so on.
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