Your Life, Your Choice.
Doctor, nurse, lawyer, psychologist. These are just a few of the career choices that float around my mind daily after my peers, parents, various members of my family, and even a few nosy neighbors shoved them there. Each of these individuals seem to think that they have a say in which career I choose to devote my life to. It’s as if everyone has become fixated with some idea for what is best for me, that they know what the right decision should be.
Everyone, that is, excluding myself. They always say the same thing: “Be careful when choosing what you want to do with your life,” or “make sure that you make the right decision.” It’s quite probable that if I was to actually tell them what I wanted to do with my life, that I truly wanted to be a writer, then they would all just stand there laughing in my face. I remember back in kindergarten when my teacher asked me the legendary question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Of course, being the charming five year old that I was, I replied by saying I wanted to be a teacher—a kindergarten teacher, just like her. So it’s plain to see that even at the mere age of five, I gave the answer that I assumed would satisfy the person asking. As I get older, while the answer may change some, the reasons behind giving it most assuredly don’t.
I’d like to think that I give typical answers like doctor or lawyer simply because I haven’t chosen my real answer yet. Though I’m pretty sure I give it because I’m not quite ready to say, “Hey mom, I want to be a writer,” or “Hey pops, maybe slicing people open and tending to gushing wounds isn’t particularly what I had in mind for my life.” Since I’ve gotten older, I now have a general idea of how I want my life to play out, I’m no longer just dreaming about my future, I’m about to be living it,and the answer I want to give is becoming harder and harder to say, causing the whole “I don’t know yet” excuse I keep giving myself to become less and less believable. To be honest, it’s not all my family’s fault. It’s also the economy’s fault—the one that’s not exactly booming—the one I’m inevitably going to have to deal with the next few years. How can I go with my dream job if the ideal job pays twice that amount if not more? How can I choose a less financially stable career if I have another more secure job opportunity waiting for me to apply? Is waking up everyday happy, eager, and ready to work, worth risking the bigger pay check of a top paying job? I think it is.
The joy I get from doing what I love surpasses the joy that a better paying job may bring. I want my life to be different from the character in the movies who sits in a cubicle all day long and hates his or her life. I want to set an example for my little sister who swears up and down she’s going to grow up to be just like Selena Gomez and be on all the magazine covers. Most people find this idea illogical, unrealistic, and maybe even a tad unorthodox. To those select individuals I say, “Too bad.
” I’m done with only giving the preferred answer. I’m done with letting the opinions of others mold and shape my own wants in life. Teenagers have a right to pave their own path, and not be told which one to take. So what if farming has been in your family for generations? So what if your dad’s car dealership is doing great, and he plans on leaving the business to you? If you want to be something else, don’t let it stop you. It shouldn’t matter what your parents do for a living, or if they get to retire 20 years early because their jobs pay so well. We are all only given one life, whether you make an annual income of over $120,000 or not.
It should be up to you to decide what you spend your life doing. It is your career that you’re going to have to wake up each day to. So my advice is, when the time comes, choose wisely
