When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be…

I had a million and one aspirations as to what was going to be my career once I grew up. I’ve wanted to be a nurse, a teacher, an actress, a veterinarian, an author… you name it, that’s what I wanted to be. It’s funny how often I changed my mind when I was little, but the older I got, the more focused I became on my career goals. No longer did I change my mind every week about what I wanted to grow up to be; instead I picked two or three career paths that really appealed to me and concentrated on them.

When I was applying to colleges, I declared my major as “International Studies” because I thought I liked that sort of thing, a focus of study about the relationships between countries and ties that exist within the global stage. Plus, my top choice university is renowned for being diverse and having a phenomenal International Studies program, so I was confident with the major I initially declared. But what I hadn’t realized was that I liked the cultural, historical, and linguistic aspect regarding relations between countries. I wasn’t so much a fan of the political and economic situations that motivated the actions of any particular country. I was also dissatisfied with the writing component for the major. I absolutely adore writing, but I didn’t want to write about the theory of defensive realism or the school of mercantilism within international political economy. It just didn’t interest or motivate me the way I thought it would, and I ended up looking to see what other majors my college offered that I would be interested in.

After doing a lot of thinking and meeting with various advisors, I am now majoring in French and Communication Media and minoring in Chinese. It’s really intense and difficult at times, but I am studying what I truly love and I know that I can use the degree I am earning towards a career that I will wholly enjoy and be satisfied with. My Communication Media studies will enable me to have a career that heavily involves writing, and my French and Chinese studies means that if I wanted to, I could go work in a French or Chinese speaking country, which is perfect since I love living abroad. I could work as a translator, a journalist, a public relations representative… the possibilities within my chosen field are endless.

Question of the Week: When you were little, what did you want to grow up to be? Has that changed over time? What would you like your career to be now?

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.