HUMANS VS. ZOMBIES UPDATE:
I am still alive...However, the outfit Gavin told me to wear today is not very hidden-sock-ball-friendly...so I don't have as fast access to my weapons. But this morning I was able to walk directly next to a zombie without being detected. I know it was foolishly risky...but it sure was exciting. Also, I weep over the loss of my friend Kylie. I look into her deadened eyes, and I know she is no longer in there. Just an empty shell...
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So, I've had something on my mind for a while that I feel I can now at least somewhat articulate. But first...a lightning-fast run-down of my career goals and actions up to this point:
When I was a very small child, I wanted so badly to be an astronaut. I know that's cliche, but ANTI-GRAVITY. Once I got to 3rd grade, I was so inspired by my awesome librarian, I wanted to grow up to be the best librarian there ever was. This started off my obsession with reading...not because I loved it, but because I needed to be a good librarian some day. That dream stuck until my sophomore year of high school, when I realized I actually wanted to be an English teacher. I loved the concept of working in a classroom where I could influence students through the discovery of self. While this seemed my most practical idea, it only lasted until my senior year of high school (ever noticed that your career path choices tend to change faster and faster as we get closer and closer to crunch time?), when my exceptional experience in AP Physics helped me to realize that I love the math and sciences that teach us how the world works. I very soon after signed up to be placed in the Mechanical Aerospace Engineering program at Utah State. I added Psychology as a second major once I arrived. Not because I really knew what I wanted to do, but because I knew I loved both those things. Two years later, I realized that the MAE program was filled mostly with guys who don't wash their hair or lead interesting lives. Understanding this wasn't really my scene, I moved to Computer Science (because that makes sense, right?) That lasted all of one year. Not wanting to live in a basement for the rest of my life, I made another adjustment. I decided I wanted to be a Business Psychologist. And that really felt right.
And here I am...9 months later. And the career path of "Business Psychologist" still sounds like a very good and practical and rather enjoyable career, where I could do a lot of good in the world. But as I talk to more and more people, I consistently find that what they really want to do is not what they're planning on doing (even if they won't admit it). Why is that? Why do so many of us seem to have these unfulfilled desires that we don't plan on accomplishing?
It's because we're taught not to. Sure, all growing up we see signs on the walls that say "FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS," and speakers come to our schools and say "YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! YOU CAN DO ANYTHING YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO!" And we all get excited. Then they give us a list of jobs and tell us to choose which one is our dream. Or they put us on a computer and have us take a personality test, and then it spits out some of our best career paths based on our answers. And then some deviant child in your class says that he actually wants to go be a living statue in Las Vegas. And then he's told that there's not good money in it, or that it's not likely he'll succeed, or that there's nothing you can major in that takes you to that end. And so, the boy becomes an insurance salesman. And that girl in the back of the class decided not to mention that she's always wanted to paint airplanes. She instead becomes a P.E. teacher.
I have some thoughts on this. This world is changing. Fast. At a more rapid technological, international, and intellectual rate than ever before. When our parents and our grandparents were growing up, the world wasn't in nearly as drastic a state of flux than what we are experiencing. We really have the ability to define the world. To redefine the world. So why do we insist on moving only toward careers that have been laid out for decades? We need new people, with new ideas and new ways to do things.
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I believe that each of us are born into this world as unique individuals, with specialized talents, both inherent in us, and which Heavenly Father gave us, so that we could be successful here on Earth. I also understand and believe that most people being born now are of the Tribe of Ephraim (of the Twelve Tribes of Israel), whose duty is to prepare this earth for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So why, when we have strong desires and interests that seem to deviate from the norm, do we question them and set them aside?? Do you not think that those dreams we dream at night are significant? Do we not trust our very core?
Now is the time of achieving dreams. I am sure of it. And you will probably be told you won't succeed, or that no one ever actually does that, or that you should try something safer. And yes, I understand that deviating from the hard-ingrained ruts of proven successful career paths is harder and more abstract than lawyer/teacher/firefighter/programmer. But the only reason that people tend to be unsuccessful is because when you decide to go full-speed ahead toward an abstract but thrilling dream, there is the tendency to be reckless and spontaneous. You still need a plan. You still need to be smart and gain the right knowledge and resources. But once you do, there is nothing to stop you from becoming whatever you love.
Really, becoming a Business Psychologist would be great. But as I look back through my life, and as I look at what I choose to do with my free time, I know that I am a natural-born game-maker. Board games, group games, role-play games, murder mysteries, mind games...I love them, and I am constantly thinking up new ones. Sometimes I think what it would be like to live my life thinking up new ways for people to have fun. And my heart soars! But then I realize...there's no "Game Design" major. There's no "Fun Facilitation Expert" career path. And it's easy to think "Well, that would have been nice," and to keep doing whatever my school counselors tell me I should. But you know what? This world NEEDS more ways to have fun. We need more wholesome, family-friendly ways to laugh and experience the world. And I can do that. I have that ability. Should I waste this great gift and drive that I have just because it doesn't have a checkbox on the list of laid-out futures?
No.
And neither should you. So you want to write influential novels for middle-school students. So you want to become a fruit vendor in New York. So you've always wanted to travel to exotic places and write articles for magazines about your experience. Or you think you'd like to become a professional Ultimate Frisbee player, or to invent "Smart Shoes," or build an interactive Museum of Watering Systems connected to a water park....if only it were possible. Well it is. So just go do it, would you? Bless the world with what's intrinsic about you.
I'm going to be brave and actually follow a dream I have. What will you do?
