by Stephanie Palazzolo, assistant editor
When I was in preschool, my school had a career dress up day, one of those events where proud parents went crazy transforming their children into little dolls and managed to take enough “adorable” photos to embarrass their kids for several more decades. I remember looking around and seeing all my classmates in a rainbow of colors, each child dressed up in their own miniature outfit. We went around in a circle saying what we would like to become when we grow up.
“I want to be an author!”
“Well, I’m going to be a ballerina.”
“And I want to be an ice-cream taster!”
The list continued on and on, the careers getting more and more ridiculous as we all tried to think of the strangest jobs we could. Our teacher just laughed along with us then, amused at the creativity and imagination of a bunch of four-year-olds. But as I grew up, similar career choices were met with eye rolls and sighs instead of smiles and encouragement.
Suddenly, the mantra wasn’t “Follow your dreams,” but rather, “Follow your dreams… if your dreams get you $50,000 as soon as you get out of college.”
Can’t anyone be successful if they work hard enough? What kind of society is one that only consists of rich but unhappy doctors, lawyers and engineers? What ever happened to the American dream?
Of course, it’s hard to blame people for putting security over happiness with the lingering effects of the recent recession. After all, every parent and teacher wants their child or student to be successful right out of college. With thousands of dollars in student loans, a little extra cash is something that every college graduate would be happy with having.
Many people choose more “practical” majors thinking that they can switch back to their passion later on in life; this rarely happens, though. Too often, people are sucked into their careers and never get the chance to return to what they truly love. And if you think about it, we spend over half of our life working — that could be half of your life doing something that you hate. Plus, if every student flocks towards certain majors, it becomes even more harder to get a secure job in that area, destroying the very reason why people are choosing them in the first place.
Choosing a career that you truly love, even if it’s not “practical,” will be difficult at first, but it’ll definitely pay off in the end. Following your dreams is a true act of courage; it’s having the bravery to stand out in a society where monotony is valued, where everyone usually follows the same path to the same jobs to the same life. And the happiness that comes with spending the rest of your life in a career that you love is something that no amount of money can purchase.
