When I used to be lost, I asked everyone and anyone about what they were doing with their lives and whether to go for the money or do what you love. On occasion, I still ask this question. My Uber driver last Wednesday said do what you love. My old, filthy-rich head-therapist at the rehab joint told me to go for the money. Who to trust? The guy chatting me up for that two-dollar tip? Or the dude who rolls up to the rehab clinic for a couple hours every day in a wicked-dope charcoal-gray Corvette?
When you read this, you'll ask: "Why not do both? Pursue what you love and the money will follow!" A valid answer, but hardly grounded in reality. After going to Boise State for three years, I've found that, when faced with doing what you love and being poor as potatoes (two forces always working against each other), versus making that dough, most people will sell out to become market-data-analysis-prognosisizerstometrists. Not to say that this is a bad thing. I am told that much of the modern world of business relies on these market-data-analysis-prognosisizerstometrists to function. For instance, did you know that every time your internet connection slows it's because one of these irreplaceable individuals jumped out of the 27th floor of their office?
I'm joking of course, as we all know the real reason for slow internet is Russian hackers and NSA snoops. But back to market-data-analysis-prognosisizerstometrists. I have many friends involved in the complicated industry of business/technology/analysis and I always wondered if that's what they saw themselves becoming. That when they were in first grade and were given the assignment to write about what they wanted to be when they grew up they chose market-data-analysis-prognosisizerstometristry.
They probably chose something cooler along the lines of cowboy or rocket-surgeon. While the counter-argument would be that no one has any idea of who they are as a child, I believe that children are far more honest about who they are than we are. The uninhibited imaginations of children produce more honesty than minds like ours that have been whipped and beaten by fear and the pursuit of money.
It isn't easy pursuing what you love. As an English major and writer, I can attest to the demoralizing power of the question "what are you going to do with an English major?"
I can attest to the fear that rises within me when time and time again I see the doubt in people's faces when I tell them who I wish to become. It's not easy chasing what you love, and if you look at things in terms of money and Ferrari's and mansions, I just might be screwed. But at least I'm being honest with myself.
And while I've made literally thousands of bad decisions that have killed the child in me, I've held on to that one piece of my childhood that has given me the courage to do what I love, money be damned. So, too my old rehab therapist who is probably reading this on a multi-thousand dollar computer screen in one of your condos: Screw your cheap advice, bro, I'm doing what I love. Also, I was wondering if I could crash on your couch after I graduate next semester?
