At age 6 I approached my parents in our living room and told them that my mind was made up. I was absolutely positive of my future. I was going to be an “officer.”
What I meant I think was that I wanted to dress up in a business suit go to a big office sit at a desk with a nameplate use paperclips and do important business things. So for Christmas that year my parents bought me a shiny black briefcase. I was in heaven. My first-grade self truly believed that with a leather portfolio and dreams of copy machines and coffee breaks I was one step closer to climbing the corporate ladder.
Flash forward 15 years later and part of me hasn’t changed (I still have that briefcase in my closet at home). The biggest difference between 6-year-old me and the college senior I am today is my awareness of my life’s purpose. I now understand the importance of pursuing what I want to do while sustainably providing for myself.
It’s pretty difficult to balance the desire of what you want to do and what will earn you money. When you’re young you can dream up any sort of career and assume you’ll make a comfortable living doing it. But as you grow up and realize that financial success is not inevitable it can really change your outlook on employment. For years now I have received career tips had informational interviews with executives and taken business classes that have shown me how to maximize profit. And somewhere along the line I somehow found myself overly concerned with the paycheck my future job would offer and what perceived success it would bring me. With my April graduation date looming and the realization that I will soon be cut loose (and left to pay my own bills without assistance) I found myself researching only high-paying careers. It is far too easy to seek exclusively after large paychecks and jobs that would place me in a position for promotion.
There is nothing wrong with these aspirations; they can be a very important part of choosing a job. However when the paycheck became the primary goal of my job search I realized it was time to slow down recall my passions and re-evaluate my priorities.
All it took to shake me from my tunnel vision was simply talking with other people who were actually pursuing their dreams. A friend of mine is passionate about film and Africa and has an internship with a non-profit production company that is making a documentary there. Another friend is pursuing a Fulbright scholarship in South Korea to teach English. My roommate loves public relations and works both on campus and in an internship developing community relationships and promoting events. I’ve found Pepperdine to be full of people who are pursuing their passions. While some jobs may pay highly some may not. The important question is: Who cares? It is far more dangerous to deprive the workforce of your passion and your talent than to reveal what you’re capable of accomplishing.
Malcolm Gladwell one of my favorite modern writers states it best in his book “Outliers”: “It’s not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between 9 and 5. It’s whether or not our work fulfills us.”
Of course I want to be self-sufficient and hope to see success in my lifetime. However joy and fulfillment in my life has never ever come from a paycheck that I’ve received. I have learned that it comes from loving what you do and sharing that love with other people. Success is measured and achieved in so many ways but how I hope to reach it is by sharing every ounce of passion and joy I have with the world. I will continue to pursue my dreams and my passions; maybe after all I will end up fulfilling my first-grade dream of becoming an “officer or maybe I won’t. But one thing is certain: If I am dedicated to sharing my passions with others, everything else will fall into place.