Ask me what I want to do with my life and I will give the same answer I've always given. "I don't know." Even now, in the most important educational time of my life, I still don't know.
I thought I wanted to end up on Capitol Hill as a politician or economic aide. I thought I wanted to be involved with some of the nation's biggest social and economic decisions. I also thought I wanted to be a video game tester, so I can't exactly say I had been looking down the same career path since birth.
However, as I continue my studies in Economics at USC, I find myself engaging in events I never would have thought to prior to this semester. In addition to taking a journalism course, I have attended a few Annenberg, the School for Journalism and Communication at USC, events and have plenty more lined up for the coming weeks, including a talk with Troye Sivan (really lucky, I'd say). After some careful thought over the past weekend, I have decided I am focusing on the wrong thing in college.
This is not an easy thing to discover or even share with parents. My mother voiced opposition and even questioned if I would be good at journalism, or economics for that matter. I knew no amount of explaining would work and she would just hold her own opinions, so I let it go. What I did not do was alter my vision at all. I truly believe that I find more purpose and happiness in pursuing a degree in journalism. Every bone in my body says to go for it. Make the jump. Follow my heart and listen to my bones.
I do acknowledge the financial risk I take in going down this path, that being of uncertain job security and already low pay. But as I figure out my own priorities in life, I find myself drawn to the happier things in life, not the things that promise more money. So I leave you all with this: in the words of Hope Cladwell (from Urinetown, check it out), follow your heart. If you feel looking a different direction and wishing you could do something else, take quick breath to evaluate the consequences, and if you're prepared to make certain sacrifices, jump.
