When I Grow Up

I love dance. I love dancing, I love watching dance, I love creating and watching creations come to life. I guess it comes as no surprise that I want to be involved in dance for the rest of my life.

But let’s be realistic. Not saying that dance isn’t a viable career option for me, but there’s always got to be a Plan B. It doesn’t matter where you plan to go with your life, there needs to be another plan, just in case things don’t go the way you intended them to go. For me, the backup plan has always been engineering. I’m finishing my degree this April, which would give me the ability to work as an engineer and make a healthy living.

Since second year, I’ve known that I’m not entirely interested in engineering, but I figured that was since course work is a lot different than industry. As much as I complained, I knew that it was always a decent option to go to if things didn’t pan out the way I expected. This was pretty much the attitude I’ve had towards engineering since second year until recently.

I’m in my final semester and happen to be taking a required law and ethics course. We had to have a discussion group probably about a week and a half ago, where one of the questions to be discussed was, “What type of entry level work do you expect to do?” All of my group elaborated on all the great things that they want to do with their lives and the experience they want to get. They all seemed genuinely excited about this.

When it came my turn to give my input…I honestly couldn’t think of a single thing to say. The only thing I could think was, “I hate this so much…I could never do this forever.”

There’s absolutely nothing I want to do in the engineering field. For five years, I’ve sat back and thought that this is as good as it gets. School is as much fun as you’re allowed to have. Being miserable in school is just the precursor to being absolutely miserable at your new job where you’ll make money for the next 35-40 years before you retire. Then, after you’re 65 (maybe older, depending on how things go), you’re allowed to go back to enjoying your life.

I was listening to these people talk and saw how much passion they have for what they’re planning to do and how excited they are. I can’t find that excitement or passion in anything I do in engineering. I’m good at math. That’s about it.

So Plan A still hasn’t changed. But what about Plan B?

I don’t know. But the one thing I’ve learned in five years of school is that you should be excited to come out of school and work in whatever field you choose. Work should not be there to make you miserable and should not be all about the money. So I’m curious…what do you want to do when you grow up, and do you have a Plan B?