Growing up. I remember being praised for all my academic achievements, the first being a small prize for a creative arts contest round about age 5. Small but mighty, my parents always thought. After that it was prize after prize every year, then eventually every term. The point is, this made me a start in the eyes of my entire family. The pressure mounted but I didn’t really mind all of that because it became a lot less harder and a lot more habitual.
High school was kind of a breeze, if I overlook the hard drop I had in grade 9 and the less but equivalently hard drop I experienced for two of my four terms in grade 11. I always thought I would end up with mats and science and for a while I marvelled in maths and science, both physics and life science (biology) but after a while I realised that perhaps physics and maths weren’t for me. My marks confirmed it and within a week of realising that I made a shift that changed my plans entirely. I was a bit heart broken and disappointed at the fact that my journey into dabbling with medical studies was over before it even began but I realised I had a passion a passion for something greater besides the fact that I was initially excited by the thought of becoming a forensic medical examiner. My eye were open to the fact that going into the medical field was not something I personally wanted and like everything else I did all my life I chose what I chose all in hopes to make my parents proud, and because it was economically the smartest field to go into.
For some reason though I was content with the commerce subjects I had. As someone who chose business studies, hospitality studies and life science I suddenly had a lot of academic essays to write. I had to teach myself how to write content worthy essays with facts, prove and disprove, give examples and so forth. You would think that might have been the end of the world for me but I dived into those essays like my life depended on it and instead of them driving me up the wall, they woke up something in me. The writer in me finally had a voice and I knew where I was going from that point. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out what I would study when I was still considering the medical field and even when I thought I knew what I wanted to study, at the back of my mind I still told myself to leave my options open to other choices and whatever course chooses me first I would go for. When I told myself I wanted to be a writer however, I knew exactly what the programme entailed.
Today, my plan is still in motion and the first milestone is behind me. So now, what’s a graduate to do? I’ve had people tell me that my decisions wasn’t really clever and I wouldn’t find a job once I graduated or I would end up falling into another path and for a while I entertained the thoughts. I have my qualification as a journalist and I have always been confident about my decision, down to the second I realised I was about to graduate. Yes, there are a lot of things I wish I had done different such as expose myself to the industry from my first year and allow myself to ask for guidance, mentorship and opportunities to learn in the presence of experts but I know it’s never too late to take your first step. Besides these regrets though, I know where I’m heading. The question I get from different people though is “what now?”
Well, now we let the world know what we are capable of. A graduate’s pride is not only his or her qualification. No. A graduates pride is the hard work they put in from day one. Day one is not the first year of college or university. Day one is the first day of pre-school. The first day you knew what you wanted to do. The first time you won your first sports tournament. The first time you won an award for something and the first day you told yourself you will never give up.
Yes, we live in a time where there aren’t that many job opportunities and people keep closing the door in your face. Well, so what? Make them listen to you. Make them come to you. Or better yet show them you don’t need their opportunities to be noticed. Create your own opportunities.
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