I often ask kids what they want to be when they grow up because I’m still looking for ideas.
A lot has changed in the life of a young adult. In the past, the career you chose as a young adult was what you did every day until you could retire. Today, what a student goes to school for is not always what they choose as a career.
I think young adults are influenced by what their parents want from them in life. This is usually because the parents have not achieved their own dreams. They want their children to enter into the dreams they gave up years ago. In this way they can live vicariously through the achievements of their children.
Then you have the questions of making enough money to support yourself, making a name for yourself, what people will think, and other thoughts that qualify your status. But it’s very rare that you’ll be asked what your passion is? What do you like and want to do? You must go to college and learn a skill to earn money to compete with the rest of the world as you begin to climb the imaginary ladder to the “better” life. What happens to going to school to learn something and become a better person?
When I was college-age, I wanted to go to school for art. My family gave me the “speech” that people with art degrees don’t make money and I wasted my breath adjusting to a horrible life to be sad and poor. If I wanted to make it in the world, I had to go to trade school. (As a side note, I took three years of high school art classes and got an “A” in every grade. I took a semester in accounting and failed terribly.) They were certain that the only way I could do it was with a business degree. Studies. My parents never got the chance to go to college and I know they were proud that I was the first to go, but business college wasn’t the fire I was pushed into.
I moved away and went to college for psychology and journalism; it seemed like a good compromise. Two years later I dropped out because I ran out of money and was not eligible for financial assistance.
Twenty years later I went back and got my art degree and passed it with honors and a GPA of 3.85. Since then I’ve been making art. I admit it doesn’t pay all my bills but it feeds my soul and makes me happy. Money doesn’t buy happiness, but following your dreams does. Given the choice, always follow your heart, embrace what you are most passionate about. You will never be mis-navigated.
Even though I’ve known since my youth that art is my passion. I want to keep learning everything I can. I’m always looking for other things to learn. Children know that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. I’d rather learn their dreams. What do you want to be when you grow up?
Thanks to John-Michael Korpal | #Follow #Passion #Choosing #College #Degree
