I find it absolutely ridiculous that kids have to start deciding what they want to be so soon in life; before they even know how to operate a car they must know what career path they want to pursue. I, for example, was told my first year of high school that I needed to start deciding on a career, so like any fourteen year old I looked up highest paying jobs and chose one of those. I spent ten years of my life wanting to be a pharmacist.

I chose this career because knew I would always be financially stable as a pharmacist. I have never been great at math or science, but that didn’t matter because the salary was what was important. It literally made no sense for me to pursue pharmacy but that is what I did because society told me that the income was the most important aspect. So, I started college as a pre-pharmacy major. It was very obvious that the medical field was not in the cards for me. I realized during the misery of my first semester that money was no longer the most important part of choosing a career.

There is no doubt that money is an awesome thing to have, but I hope that every one realizes that it is not the most important thing. Just because a pre-med major plans to make six figures and an education major plans to make half of that does not mean that the teacher won’t be more successful than the doctor. It is all in how you perceive success. Doctors save lives every day, there is no doubt about that, but educators shape the lives of generations to come. You cannot say that one is more important without the other. Society tells us to measure success by salary. Don't be fooled.

Choosing a career is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make because you are going to have to work for the rest of your life. That is why it is so important to make a choice that will make you happy, not just for now, but for the long haul. Money cannot buy happiness. What is the point in doing something you hate just to earn more money? It makes no sense. Each job has a very important role in society no matter the salary. Not everyone has the brains to be a neurosurgeon just the same as not everyone has the patience to be a kindergarten teacher. Just because one job makes less money does not make it any less valuable.

I think people are often judged for deciding to pursue a career in a lower paying job because society assumes that they don’t have the ambition to become a doctor or a lawyer, but in reality we were not all designed to be doctors and lawyers. Just because someone makes more money than you does not mean they are more important than you. So many of us are choosing life paths to ensure wealth instead of happiness and believing that we cannot have both. As long as you have a passion for what ever you are doing, you can be incredibly successful.

Your major does not determine your success and your wealth does not determine your importance. You have skills that God gave you for a purpose – do not let them go to waste because you are caught up measuring your success in dollars. Life is precious. Not a single day is guaranteed to us. Do whatever it is that you love to do and don’t allow society to fool you into thinking your “easy major” won’t make an impact.