January 10 marked the beginning of the end. The final semester of my undergraduate gauntlet. The on ramp into real life.
But before the on ramp comes a crossroads. A decision which has haunted me for a long time: Do I do what’s financially responsible, or do I pursue my passion?
Life is too short to spend it doing something you never wanted to do. But sometimes, what you want might feel irresponsible. As kids, we were told that anything was possible. The sky had no limits. We could be astronauts, Nobel Prize winning scientists, presidents, FBI agents, anything.
But we aren’t children anymore, are we?
Over the last few weeks, friends and family have been asking me about my future. I’ve heard talk of salary ranges, graduate schools and fellowships, all while being reminded that those loans I took out will soon demand repayment.
It feels like I’m being discouraged from the career I want and pushed towards financial stability — A 70k starting salary with benefits, crunching numbers and forecasting. That reality is tempting, and in moments of self-reflection I find myself loosening my grip on my ambitions and dreams.
But, in those instances of doubt, I’m reminded of a story — one of two roads and a path less traveled. I’m sure you know it.
If what we wanted was easy to get, we would already have it. They’re called dreams because they haven’t been realized yet. It’s up to us to weave the fabric of our own reality into the life we want to live. It’s up to us to go after what we find important, because no one can do it for us.
To all those seniors out there, pressed for time and worried about finding work, remember it’s your life. It’s not just a function of what you need, but what you want. We’ve worked hard these last four years. We’ve spent countless hours awake burning the midnight oil, working on assignment after assignment before our morning classes — just to repeat it all again when we wake.
Now it’s time to ask yourselves what it was all for. Not something that everyone wants for you, but something you want for yourself.
The most dangerous thing you can do is find yourself looking back and asking, “what if?”
There’s a time and place for the question, and it isn’t 10 years from now surrounded by regret. It’s today. “What if” doesn't have to be a question of our past. It can serve as a way to explore our future.
I’d say all of this even in the worst of times for the job market. But, the interesting thing is that the class of 2022 is graduating during the aftermath (or continuation depending on how you look at it) of the “Great Resignation.”
When the pandemic hit, experts believed the damage it had done to unemployment would take years to correct. Instead, demand for workers skyrocketed and — to the surprise of many — people did not rush back in to meet that demand.
Now, that’s not necessarily a good thing for the economy as a whole – but that’s not the point. For graduating seniors looking for new opportunities, maybe this is your window to have the career you’ve always wanted, or the one you planned for yourself when you started at UP.
Well, what if that’s not enough? You’ll never know until you try.
To the risk averse, it might seem like a fool's errand to make a living against the odds. But if you’re going to make a jump, best to do it while the joints don’t creak. We’re young, and we can afford to make mistakes, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
If it all goes wrong, that’s okay too. There are few better ways to learn than failing. The important piece is having the resilience to get up again when you're down.
If you know your passion, follow it. If you know what you’re good at, exploit that skill to do something that makes you happy.
It’s a shorter life than we’d like, after all. And we only get one. Money can’t buy us more time.
Austin De Dios is the Editor-in-Chief of The Beacon. He can be reached at dedios22@up.edu.
