When I was in high school, I had an English teacher who told me that, to make a career out of one’s writing, it had to take a lot more than a pure passion for words to be successful.
Naturally, at the time, I agreed with her.
Unfortunately, for me, she also made it undoubtedly clear that I did not have what it took to be a writer. It was not so much through her words that she shared this with me, but through the overwhelming feeling of inadequacy which she never failed to bestow upon my presence within the classroom.
Naturally, at the time, I believed her.
My immature high school mind could not comprehend the thought that I could never be good enough to make it in such a demanding and competitive field; regardless of how much I loved to write. Instead my thoughts were more like, You should go for something safer. You should invest your time in a career that promised more stability. It’s time for you to grow up, be realistic, and start separating my dreams from reality.
So, that is exactly what I did.
I went into my freshman year as a nursing major. I figured it was smarter for me being a subpar nurse because people say the world will always need nurses. Which is true, the world does always need nurses, but that isn’t the point. The point is that we are taught to be realistic, to play it safe, and to think about “the big picture”, more than we are taught to do what we are truly passionate about. Too many people throw their happiness to the side in fear of failing. How is anyone ever supposed to feel confident in achieving their goals if the world has already putting thoughts of failure in their heads? Somehow society has managed to slowly chip away the hope people hold within themselves.
I am only 20 years old. I have little to no experience when it comes to career. I only know what I have learned to be of value to myself, but in changing my own career path I have discovered how successful I can be while also doing the thing I love most.
Your career will become your life. You will come to be submerged in your work, whatever that may be, almost every single day until you retire. So, you have the permission to be selfish. If you have to go against other people’s wishes and trust your gut, do it. Do not waste time being apprehensive because in most cases if you are doing something you love you will relentlessly be trying to become better and better at it, and therefore becoming more and more successful along the way.
No one is going to put their money on someone who does not look like they are 100 percent in it for the win. Be confident. No matter how absurd it may be, if you do it with confidence, someone is bound to believe in you.
Make a brand for yourself. There is competition all over, and if you do not show your uniqueness firsthand, you will be grouped in with all the rest. The people who leave the biggest impacts are the ones who won’t be forgotten when the time comes to weed out the weak links. Find the reason you are valuable and prove that they need you to be better than average.
Being realistic is accepting the fact that life, no matter how safe you decide to play it, will manage to mess up your plans. You will fail. That is inevitable. In that case, why not fail at something worthwhile instead of failing at something you are only doing for a sense of security that can never truly be promised to you. I believed that I could be an extraordinary writer regardless of what others told me. When it comes to being successful, you don’t need a ton of people in your corner, you really only need to have enough faith in yourself to find the success you are striving for.