There was a time in my life where money was what made the focus of my career. I wanted to be a doctor more because of the money than I did to save lives. At the beginning of my senior year it became more than evident to me that I would be miserable and probably fail at becoming a doctor. I searched the Internet and my teacher's minds for the perfect career. My mind revolved around the possibility of more money. When a friend suggested to me that I major in English I almost broke my jaw on the floor. However, the more I thought about it the more I realized it would be a perfect fit. Money no longer became my main focus.
On a daily basis, I talk to and hear a lot of other college students. It seems that most of us are here, in college, for similar reasons; we all want to succeed in a field that we love. There are not a lot of times that you will hear someone talk about how much money they hope to make. Mostly, we just complain about how in debt we're going to be for paying for college. What changes when we graduate?
The first thing most adults that don't know me say to me when I say I'm an English major and that I want to be a writer is that most jobs won't pay me much. Is it wrong that I don't care? I understand that things are hard out there in the real world. I would love to have enough money to live comfortably but the truth is that I want to do what makes me happy over what gives me the most money.
The world, and adults tell us every day that without making six figures we will never be happy. I think they're wrong. The jobs that myself, my friends, and other students want may not give us millions of dollars, but they are what will make us happiest. Our parents and our teachers spend a lot of time telling us that we can be anything we want to be and that we should dream as big as possible. Then all the sudden what we're dreaming big for and working hard to achieve isn't enough because it won't make us enough money. Most of the people I have met here at Tarleton are dreaming big for jobs like writing, being a game warden, a psychologist, an author, a social worker and a teacher. None of these jobs really pay all that much, but they pay enough.
Most college students you talk to will tell you that their happiness for the rest of their lives is more important than making millions of dollars every year. You would hear the same from me. I've been told "You can be happy and make a million dollars a year", and that is true. However, the profession I've chosen doesn't do that, and for me that is OK.
What changes when we graduate? Do we look at this big and scary world and decide that we are going to do whatever it takes to make the most money? Do we decide our happiness doesn't matter? Or am I wrong when I say that being rich isn't most important? I do understand money is a necessity. What I don't understand is putting money before happiness. I don't know what it is, but I refuse to be the person who gets their degree and then works in a completely different field for money. This field makes me happy. Every week, every day it brings me joy. Why would I lose that for money?
