Life Lesson: Career Path

sira anamwong

Hello friends and family,

As a young person I'm always being asked what and where I see myself in the future. I could never answer the question and if I did I would say, "Hopefully not in a Crack house," then proceed to laugh while slapping my knee. In all seriousness, I did need to think about my future because
sometimes, "going with the flow," mentality usually doesn't get you far. So for people who are struggling keep reading, because this may help you too.

As a child I was always into the arts and loved animals, whenever I saw my future I worked as a vet taking care of only dogs and painting sceneries. Growing up in the Bronx, for a short period of time, with my mother and God- mother -- let's call her A -- use to paint all the time. Even though, some of her paintings use to scare me, I loved the colors and how she use basic shapes that would then, turn into a great masterpiece. When I left the bronx at the age of 4 or 5, she left a big imprint on me and I became obsessed with art. Throughout school I always made sure I took an art class, even if I was interested in something else art always came first. Once I got older English and History were my favorites while in school, I always got high grades in English, History, and Art and it carried on throughout my life. Thinking about my future I kept this in mind; footnote: I am a very lazy person so when thinking about my future I tried to find the least most active thing to do, or at least pick an easy one to succeed in. When I did the research on how to be a veterinarian and saw how long and hard the process was, and plus realizing I'm allergic to dogs, cats, little animals, and grass, I quickly dropped that thought. Working from home while wearing PJ's, that's my dream job, so if your hiring, I'm looking!

nenetus

Anyways, when I moved to New York, I didn't know exactly what I was going to be studying in college. I knew I loved art, history, and English, but because I'm a lazy person and didn't want to take my SAT's -- and in fact I did take them but did miserable -- I thought that I'd find a school where I didn't need them. That's when Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) came into the picture. The only bad thing was you needed a portfolio in order to get into the art department. So, I came up with a bright idea to do something else, work on my portfolio, and switch into the art department. Somewhere along my journey, I lost sight of what my goal was and became stressed about my grades, came down hard on myself, and was questioning what I was doing. Sad to say, the following semester I withdrawn from school and got a job to find myself, find what I love and what my passions are. I found that I absolutely love street libraries! During the summer on the upper east side of Manhattan, these "people" (whoever they are) sell all types of books for $1 to $40 the most depending on the book. I would always rummage through them to see what jems I could find, sometimes I would find a book but because my job at the time, as a dog walker, was helping me make little to no money, I couldn't afford them. Something else I found out was I love to explore, I like finding cool places to shop, and then brag to my friends and family and how much I paid for it and where I found it. Last but not least, I discovered that I love to document my experiences. I love telling stories -- real or exaggerated -- and looking at the expressions on people's faces. If brings me joy when I tell a successful story, that's a part of the reason why I started Life Lessons on my page.

Once I found my passions I decided to incorporate that into my future goals. I started looking at jobs on Indeed and LinkedIn, and soon realized that I would need to obtain a degree to even gain experience as a writer or artist. I did some side jobs as a ghost writer but realized that there topics didn't interest me, and if it wasn't that, no one would contact me back. I kept trying but mainly focused on my blog and in the meantime applied to a community college so I could at least obtain my degree while figuring life out.

Ambro

The second hardest decision was picking a degree to major in. I knew I loved to write and loved to paint, I thought about looking into being an art major first because I thought it would be the easiest thing to obtain. Boy, wasn't I wrong, art majors make a lot of money but it's all about connections. I know how to connect with people but falling through with those commitments, and false interests is hard to keep up with. Instead I chose my second love which is writing -- which is now my first love. I didn't really want to be a writer because I heard how hard it can be, but I love how you can express yourself and make something seem so lively on a white piece of paper -- or in this case, the world wide web. It's almost like Art and Writing had a baby and came up with me. Before finding a job or major to pick, I did my research. Reading, listening to books, and following authors, I became obsessed with story telling. The fact that you can loose yourself in a story and basically, dream with your eyes open is fascinating to me. I also became obsessed with screenwriting -- mainly because of Awkward Black Girl, who is very inspiring to me. Now, I have somethings to work with; I love to write, I'm interested in writing my own book and screen play, and besides if I decide to still live out my dream as being a writer for a magazine or whatever may be the case, I need a major to fulfill that, that's when I came across Media and Film production. The next day I went online an applied to the school.

Throughout my short journey I realized that sometimes things don't always go as planned, maybe you need to take a year or two off of school to figure life out, maybe you need to work at a low end job to make you realize that you can definitely do better for yourself. That doesn't mean that's where your going to stay, until you make a difference. Looking at my past I went through a lot of trial and error from veterinarian, to an artist, to being a writer, but who really knows what's going to happen in the future. Things don't always end up as planned and it's okay, take sometime to yourself. Until next time ️

With Love & Sweetness,