As a recent college grad, one of the most asked, and possibly most feared questions we can get is what are we going to do now. Some people know exactly what they are going to do right when they get out of school and others have absolutely no idea what they are doing with their lives and are scared stiff at the very prospect. I however, am somewhere in the middle of these two. Right now, all I know is that writing is my passion and that’s all I really want to be doing, and I want to be doing it within the entertainment world. Of course I’m terrified, but I’m also excited to start being who I was always meant to be.
Now when I tell people that I’m an English major, another one of the most asked questions and subsequently my pet peeve of a question is ‘so are you going to be a teacher?’. The answer to this overly asked question is unequivocally no. As I’ve told many many people, it takes a certain kind of person to be a teacher, and I applaud them, but that’s just not me, it never has been. I think my dreams have always been bigger than that and I’ve known that I wanted to be a writer for most of my life. Sometimes I wish I was meant to do something else, like being a teacher or wanting to work a regular nine to five job, but it’s not who I was meant to be. I was meant to be a writer, a storyteller, a creator of the impossible just by using that thing called imagination and something as simple and complex as words. The art of stringing together words to make thoughts, to create something out of nothing, is what I am absolutely in love with. This is the reason I can’t just settle for anything less than what I want.
I know there are so many older adults who believe that I should get a ‘practical’ job because you need to pay the bills somehow and because being a writer doesn’t pay much and because breaking into what I actually want to do is hard work and not a lot of people make it. Thinking about it, it’s sad that when I was little, I was told I could do anything I set my mind to, which I still believe to be true, but now that I’m older everyone is telling me just to get a job that pays better. I respect the opinions of my elders, I really do, but at the end of the day I have to do what’s right for me and I know I need to try to make it in my chosen field. Being a creative writer may not be practical, but it’s what I love and trying to do anything else before I’ve even tried getting jobs I actually want would be giving up on my dreams essentially. Sure, some people say it’s just putting them on the back burner and you can still write in your spare time, but let’s be honest, settling for a mediocre dead end job just because it pays the bills is a dream killer and a soul sucking abyss of awfulness. At least that’s the way I see it.
To an older generation, I get that following my dreams does not seem like the smart way to go, maybe not the most lucrative at first, but I truly believe that I can do great things within my field, if only I am able to get there. This generation is full of people who have created jobs because they simply didn’t want that general nine to five job they knew they'd hate and successfully did something about it. If I don’t try to live my dreams, I’ve already given up completely. And that's just not going to happen because if there’s one thing I am, it’s a fighter. I know what I want, I’m never going to stop fighting until I get it, and when I do get it, I’m never going to stop being passionate about it. So for all of you with dreams you long to achieve, but might not have the support you want, be brave, be bold and do what you love because you only get this life. Don’t waste it trying to fit into some sort of societal mold. We may be learning how to adult, but never forget who you really are.
No comments:
Post a Comment