When you’re a child, your parents tell you that you can be anything you want when you grow up, whether that be a teacher, an astronaut, or a ballerina. However, as you get older and try to share your dreams and aspirations, people have the tendency to scoff at you and say, “Yeah, good luck.”
And now, as a college student, when I tell people that I want to work in TV and film, they tell me that my chances of getting a job in that field are impossible, that the field doesn’t require “real work,” and that I should change my major.
First of all, who are you, a nursing major, to tell me my major doesn’t require “real work?” Do you think because I don’t learn about the human anatomy and medicine that I don’t work hard? Do you think that my countless hours staring at a computer screen in the editing room aren’t equivalent to your textbook studying?
Don’t tell me that my work isn’t real work. I study and learn just as much as anyone in any other major does, it’s just that my major is different. That is the only thing that separates my future field of work from anyone else’s.
Those studying medicine will one day become doctors, and work in hospitals while helping those who acquire illnesses. Those studying accounting will one day become financial advisers and accountants. Those studying business will one day help develop big time companies, and learn how to make you spend money that you don’t need to spend. And I will one day be the person who yells cut on season 25 of "Grey’s Anatomy."
Don’t you, (The bigots who tell me I won’t ever have a career), realize that entertainment is so important to America’s society? Sure, it’s occasionally disgusting, invasive and inappropriate, but what would you do without your favorite television show? How would you feel if the film world stopped producing rom-com’s or those action packed movies that are composed of literally nothing but explosions?
You would be devastated. You would be irritated. You would be begging society to create more movies and TV shows. Without the people who work in TV and film, TV and film wouldn’t exist.
Oh, and to the people who “support” me, but remind me that getting a good job fresh out of college won’t happen- do you think I’m an idiot? Do you think I don’t know that you have to start at the bottom in order to climb your way to the top? I am quite aware that I won’t be able to live comfortably for at least 15 years. I am very well prepared for reality, thank you very much.
I know that life sucks at first, and it continues sucking for a while until you convince yourself that all the stress was worth it. Life is full of hardship and I know that. So I would appreciate it if people stopped telling me I wasn’t going to have a career.
Anyone in any major needs to realize that it’s not going to be easy. Companies will not just open the door for you; you’ve got to stand tall, and jingle the handle for a while before they even crack it open, and even that isn't the end of the process. It won't be easy, but constantly telling people that isn't going to help either.
