What do you want to be when you grow up?
Every child hears this question repeated throughout their childhood, and while it’s something that everyone ponders about, few figure out the answer until they are at the doorstep of the job industry. For me, this was a challenging question that required not only extensive thought but also consulting those around me. I often received suggestions to look into career paths like engineering, law, or medicine. Although these were fascinating fields, most of the people providing these suggestions were doing it solely based on the idea that these paths provide the most financial stability.
Growing up and going through countless life experiences helped me decide for myself what type of path I wanted to take. I’ve come to realize how much of the advice I received from family and friends was pressuring me down a path I didn’t see myself in. Many Asian families tend to value high-paying and “stable” careers because many of these families come from poor immigrant families that had to work their way up. The last thing they want to witness is their children returning to the levels of poverty they had to experience as children, and they see financial stability as the best way to maintain such wealth.
Eventually, I developed a passion for writing and journalism, showing me the importance of finding what you enjoy through your own experiences. I went through trial and error, exploring what each field had to offer and determining which one I found most interesting. Whether that was a summer camp to learn about engineering or an observership to experience what it’s like to work in a hospital, I gradually realized how these fields didn’t align with what I was looking for. Even school clubs were helpful, as I joined a wide array of clubs in my freshman year of high school, only to cut down to the select few that I found to be interesting. Through this process, I eventually settled on journalism as my passion, as I loved being able to tell stories, but also using those stories to help out those around me.
For all the students out there still on the seemingly endless search of what they want to study in college or do beyond school, I’d advise you to base your decision on your experiences. Through engaging with engineering and medicine, I discovered that those fields weren’t as interesting to me as writing. Just because your parents suggest a certain field doesn’t mean you have to follow their dreams. While parents may want students to enter a “stable” career, sometimes this means doing something that students don’t enjoy at all. Would you want to spend the rest of your life working in a field that you hated? The next time you’re thinking about what you want to be when you grow up, make sure to consider if you’d enjoy the career you’re thinking of.