[Beware, counter-cultural speculation to follow!]
First, an anecdote. On Saturday I was at my piano teacher's house hanging out for an hour or so and listening to another girl I know play her RCM grade 9 piano pieces for me. I also played mine for her. A mutual friend of ours, with whom we took History 3, came to listen. Afterward, we were discussing what careers we were looking at and what our university plans were. The one girl was going into engineering, and the other was taking sciences and then pharmacy - both of which will make them money. I'm looking at a three/four-year Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, which, while being the choice I'll enjoy the most, does not promise me a cash-filled future.
About now, I start to feel unsure about myself. What am I doing, studying English? How will that help me do anything more than become a starving writer? I should pick something that will give me a career, and write on the side. That, in turn, makes me feel gloomy. I don't want to pick a different career. Moreover, I don't want to have to work doing something I don't really enjoy.
Then, in the car on the way home - epiphany!
So I want to write. Okay. I can finance university myself. I'll do the Bachelor of Arts, and then what if I don't want a career that will make me cash? Say I want to be a stay-at-home mom. Maybe I'll home-school. I can still write (that's what the BA is for), and I won't have to make a choice between working - continuing in that prestigious career I worked so hard for - or being mommy.
It was a very liberating feeling, to realize that I don't have to stress about marks to get into university and then about getting a job out of university and then about making lots of cash. Our society tells you that marks matter and money matters and you better spend 25 hours a day doing homework otherwise you will fail at life, and what it's done is make education a god. I'm sick of my friends having too much homework to do fun stuff. I'm sick of them being stressed. In a weird roundabout way, I start to actually feel guilty about not being stressed. As I've said many times before, there are points at which school needs to stop being the top priority. Okay, so don't drop out of high school or anything, but do you really need to spend so much time at it?
Do the things you love. Maybe they won't make you money, but hey, money can only do so many things.
Nobody needs to agree with me. But this is what I think.
(As an afterthought, the world does need people in careers that take eight years in university and so on and so forth. The point is, don't do that for money, do it because you love the profession, and if it's so stressful, is it REALLY worth it?)
9 comments:
If life was about money, would I be spending four years in university to get a degree in music performance? I don't think so.
They say you only get one chance in life, but when it comes to careers, they're wrong. There's always a way to go back and find something different that you want to do with your life. Don't think that this is the most important decision you're ever going to make in your life.
As my dad tells me many times, there may come a day when I decide that maybe I don't want to be in music all my life. When that point comes maybe I'll find a different job, maybe I'll go back to school and get another degree. Who knows.
The point is...well, you can figure out your own point to all of this. I have friends in music who still don't know what they want to do.
~Cal~
Yeah, but you ARE doing the things you love, so that's the point. What I'm saying is that I'm doing what I love and it won't make me money, as are you. So that's good. Not you specifically, but lots of people go into something they're not passionate about because it'll make them money.
Yeah, I'm not really sure what your point was either :P I don't *think* I disagree with whatever it was, though.
Bravissima! I think, as far as education is concerned, I've become something of a rebel. I refuse to get a loan to pay for college... even if it means not going to college. I refuse to worry and be sick over my SAT scores. I refuse to get a degree in something that will ensure a wealthy future.
But then again, overall, I'd say I'm a pretty happy teenager. And I'm socialized and not an uneducated idiot... so honestly... in this mere wisp of a life, why should I drive myself crazy with worry over education?
*applauds* Well said, Melda! I agree with you completely.
I do like eating, so I'll admit that money is important in life, but it's definitely not the most important thing. I'd much rather be happy and doing something that I like to do than be rich. That's the main reason I took the low-paying job in Yellowstone, instead of finding a higher-paying job in something related to my degree. After two years studying marketing and management, I'm not sure if it's what I want to do with my life. It kind of sucks that I paid for the learning, but I'd still rather spend more money learning something else or completely disregard any school to do something I like.
(That was a very long, rambling paragraph that probably makes no sense. I think I'm getting tired.)
I'm with Joy - loans do not sound fun!
I think it's fantastic that you've come to realize this. Personally, however, I don't agree with you. Big surprise, eh?
My reasons: (behold a long, boring ramble on... myself)
1. Like you said, writers starve. Struggling to pay the bills, feed the family, etc. etc. is stress down the road. I'd rather stress now, get a helluva job, tuck some money in the bank, and have an easier time of it later.
2. I want to help support my family. I refuse to be the lazy ass in the corner, writing my book and donating almost nothing to the family income. I want to have enough money to fulfill my children's dreams if not entirely my own - to send them off to respectable colleges, to give them comfortable lives in a nice neighborhood. And I want to have some money left over to support my parents... maybe send them back to China.
3. I want to support myself, to stand on my own two feet instead of depending on my future husband's income. I've resolved not to repeat my mother's mistake. If my future husband turns out to be an asshole, I won't be bound to him for life. My life will be my own.
4. I like status. I'd rather sit in an office than wait tables.
Yep, that's my argument. You probably won't agree with it, but anyhoo... best of luck toward your future. Someday we'll share an autograph table at the local bookstore :D
I semi-agree with you. Sort of.
I'm guessing I'm one of the friends that makes you sick of friends not being able to do fun stuff and being stressed. Except that that's where I thrive. I know it sounds weird, but as much as I hate the stress, I sort of love it, and it's the only way I'd get ANYTHING done. And in terms of fun stuff... I work hard to make it fit. REALLY hard. Because the way i see it, I should work for things that are important to me. And marks are important to me, not just because society says so, but because academics... well, it's kind of my thing. My marks are important in the way that a story is important to a writer, a painting is important to an artist, a game is important to an athlete. I am by no means an artist or athlete, but I am an academic. I do school. i enjoy it, and my end result is marks.
But it's not the only thing important to me. Theatre is important to me, and I've made time this year to do a lot of it. Friends are important to me. i'm trying incredibly hard to make sure I still see people and spend quality time with them. God is important to me. I work my week around making sure I have time on Tuesdays.
Where am i going with this? I don't really know. Maybe it's my justification for having school as a top priority. Maybe it's my justification for being stressed. Whatever it is, it's a sort of roundabout agreement with you. It's important to make time in your life for the things that matter, but those things are allowed to be academic.
And I still don't know what I'm going to do "when I grow up." but whatever it is, I'm going to make sure it's important to me.
Sorry for the ramble.
I won't go on a long ramble in response (though I could), but - yes, in essence, as long as you're doing what you enjoy, that's the point, right? I think that what I'm more trying to say is that instead of spending half your life stressing about school - and I don't think it's reaching to say that not everyone enjoys it - really, what else could you be doing with your teenage years that will have a far more lasting impact than whether or not you can swallow and then regurgitate information for a test? That's not what real life is about. I don't think there's even one career that requires constant pointless exams.
Also, fudge muffin, you are correct in that I disagree with you. However, I do completely understand your reasoning. I think that our different life situations probably account for our different opinions.
Rambles are okay, guys :) Thanks for the comments.
I didn't say I liked pointless exams; I'll give you that much.
Also, did you just call me Fudge Muffin???
Fudge Muffin = my personal stalker.
*sage nod*
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