Now that I’m a junior in college, there seems to be a lot of pressure on me from my parents, siblings, relatives, and close family friends to know my plan after graduation. “What do you want to do?” “Tell me you are going to Law School, right?”, “You need to have a plan!”.
It’s never ending, and I suppose being the youngest of my siblings, all of whom are extremely successful, there is a lot of pressure on me to be just as successful as them…live up to their standards.
But let me say this, just because I don’t exactly know what my career path will be, that does not mean I don’t have any ambition to be successful. It just means that I’m not limiting my options. I have finally found a major that I love, English/Literary Studies. I love to write and I love to read, and thankfully majoring in English leaves me with a ton of different career paths to pursue in the future.
Successful for me does not mean how much money I have in my bank account. I’d be lying if I said that money doesn’t matter, because it absolutely does (I mean I have to be able to support myself and live comfortably). But what true career success means for me is…
1) Waking up every morning, well almost every morning, feeling beyond excited to get to work, and do the job that I love.
2) Being able to feel fulfilled by the work I’m doing.
3) Working in an atmosphere where I can be creative, and my creativity is appreciated.
4) Working with an amazing team, people who aren’t just co-workers, but actually become good friends.
And as of right now, those are the top career wants on my future career wish list. Now, as far as what career field that is, I don’t exactly know, and thats totally ok! Right now, I’m going to continue to excel in my classes and my internship, and also keep an open mind to several different career paths.
This is the stage I’m in right now—the “I-Don’t-Know, But I’m Happy and Figuring It Out” Stage. For me, it’s kind of the most exciting stage ever because I’m discovering new things about myself: my wants, talents, priorities, and so much more. It’s also just down-right exciting not knowing what the future holds (I love surprises).
So to all of those lovely people who are worried about me being so indecisive, stop worrying because I’m doing perfectly fine! Right now, I’m building the ground work for my future career, and the rest will simply unfold on its own.