Now more than ever before, people talk about building their personal brand. But branding oneself at such an early age (yes, 18-25 is early) can be problematic. You don’t know what you want. Or maybe you do know, but how do you know that you really know, you know?
There’s been a tweet going around about how much of your salary you should have saved by the time you’re 30: “1x your annual income” (Chatzy, 2017). As a 20 year old college student, I can safely say that I have saved none of that.
People want you to believe that when you turn 18, you’re an adult.
“Oh, you can drive now.”
“You can vote!”
“You can buy cigarettes [and give yourself lung cancer].”
As soon as you turn 18, you’re flung unceremoniously into the void of depression that’s masquerading as adulthood.
When you’re young, you get told that you can be anything if you put your mind to it. Yet, as you grow, you’re told that you should abandon your dreams in favor of practicality. Teachers and family members, who are supposed to nurture you and help you to develop as a person, will shut down your ambitions of pursuing art or music, dance or theatre, or anything that doesn’t meet the conventional image of success.
You’d spent years building up this idea about yourself: that you were going to be a singer and you were going to learn to play piano and Ashlee Simpson was your sister, only to find out that your parents tricked you. How was your seven year old brain supposed to understand that Ashlee Simpson was too old and too white to have the same mother as you? Huh Mom? How?
The point that I’m trying to make is that we spend most of our adolescence questioning ourselves: who we are, what we want and what we’re going to be. But in reality, no one really has the answers.
People with whole wives can discover that they’re gay near the end of their life. Some people decide to go back to school after dedicating years to a career in a different field. It’s never too late to turn your life around, and for now you should just find something you like and stick with it.
When you think about building your personal brand, you shouldn’t panic (like I do). You just have to live your truth and live it in the best way you can at the moment. If that means that at age 25 you'll be a carpenter and at 43 you'll be a neurosurgeon, do it. If you can just take the time to think about your life and some sustain your existence, do it. You don’t need to climb a mountain top to find yourself. And if you’re ever feeling like you don’t know what you’re doing in life, just remember, you never once thought that Ashlee Simpson was your sister because you have the same last name.
