The question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” is common for just about every student. When you’re young and express your dream goals in life the older generations are always supportive and telling you that you can be whatever you want to be. But, when you’re a college student and expressing how you want your life to look, often times the older generations will tell you to “be realistic” or they won’t offer as much support towards your ideas. Why is this?

Why do our dream jobs have to die when the time to really focus on what we’re going to do professionally is upon us?

I recently visited my grandparents and of course the topic about college and my future career came up since that’s the conversation of choice for everyone talking to a college student. My grandpa asked me where I saw myself in the next 5 years, I then replied with how I had a couple ideas of what I could do but I always have wanted to write a book, so I might major in something that could build my skills up for that.

With a confused face he looked back at me and said “No, I mean what do you think you’re going to do for money one day?”.

Yikes. Of course, he didn’t mean it in a bad way but at the same time I can’t help but wonder if I would have said that I wanted to be a writer when I was 5 would I have gotten a different response?

Every generation is different and ours is no exception with all of the change that society has gone through in the past years. With the generation that is now in high school and college thinking about what the next step is is on everyone’s mind.

Unlike other generations our generation is motivated by passion which older generations gives us a lot of disdain about.

However, if you’re passionate about something and want to do it more and do well at it wouldn’t you be successful anyway? That’s what I’ve always thought and am going to continue to think.

Your dreams don’t have to be something permanent set in stone but as far as I can tell the people who have followed their passions and what make them happy tend to love their life more than someone who went to college and majored in something they didn’t particularly like.

I could sit here in my tiny dorm room and inform you how you will regret it if you don’t go after your dreams and how you’re going to be happy if you do but I’m not going tell you that. I’m not going to do that because I don’t know if those things are true. And the writers of the articles that you read those kinds of things from don’t know either. Maybe you do have a dream now and start to pursue it and realize it’s not something you want to do anymore but you found something else that intrigues you along the way.

I don’t want to be the person who gets an education for a job that will bring in money just to pay off the debts and work a job that I loathe.

A 9-5 job that I go to everyday and wish I was somewhere else isn’t on my agenda. I guess overall what I'm saying is just go for it. None of us know where we will be in a year, 5 years or even 10 years. So, wouldnt you want to progress down a road filled with passion than resentment toward 8 hours of every day?