Steve Jobs once said, “You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” At 20, these words propelled my confidence to greater heights and gave me the balls of steel I desperately needed.
Among other things, I was driven by this quote to keep searching for what i loved/wanted to do with my life and i refused to settle until i found it. I decided to leave the comfortable confines of a college campus shortly after the inspiration from the prophetic teachings of Steve Jobs, because much like him at the time, i couldn’t see the value of college after a few semesters and enter the unpredictable ecosystem known as "The Real World". I had done the math. Choosing to sit in a class for several hours meant generating a great deal of student loans, and even though I looked to the government for aid, the loans far outweighed the free money and since i had no idea what i wanted to do with my life, I decided that leaving would be the smarter choice for me financially.
I packed up my bags and moved back into my parents house for a year. Luckily, they were more than happy to welcome their son back into their arms. During that time, I enrolled in a job training program whose main focus was getting its students prepared for the job force. It was a year long program and it was broken up into two parts. The first part was a classroom experience which focused on both technical and soft skills including public speaking, personal finance and personal development. I was getting exposed to things i was not learning in college and the best part was i was getting a stipend to be a part of this program.
The second part of the program focused on getting students the hands-on professional experience they needed to be ready for the workforce. That mean a 6-month internship with a fortune 500 company. I used that time to soak in as much information as possible. I asked so many questions and before I left the company, i had crafted a go-to question. It was "Knowing what you know now, what is the one thing you would change/ do differently if you had the chance to?" Everyone was pleased with the question and felt happy to answer. I took in every answer and applied the wisdom it provided. My internship was over before I knew it but I was excited to start working. I was speeding through life and loved it. Of course that included several ugly times like spending nights on floors in random apartments but it was great because it was part of the experience.
In conclusion, feeling stuck forced the decision to leave a condition i was unhappy with. Think deeply about the options infront of you and make sure to make important decisions like this one yourself. Before you decide to spend four important years confined to a miserable schedule in hopes of a good job afterwards, make sure it is worth every minute of it.
