Yes, I know I have another blog now. I'm still reserving this for my more artistic/philosophical/angsty posts. Because it seems one can always find a reason for angst. Or at least I can.
I hate uncertainty. Always have. I don't like things I can't predict. I hate thinking about the future--there's so much of it that I can't expect.
I know one thing for sure: I will not be content to spend 40 years working at a job I hate because the money's good. I want to find a job I love. I want to wake up morning not considering work an irritating chore to cross off the list, but something I love doing. There are a lot of things I love to do, and I want to spend my life doing one of those things.
The problem is, there are too many options. There isn't one defining thing that I love. I love to write. I love music. I love politics. The first two facts led me to pursue journalism, hoping to get a job writing for a music or even video game magazine. So I went to a school with a top-flight journalism program. Maryland has one of the best journalism schools in the world. But...it's all hard news here. I'm not sure how much I want to do that for a living. I have an internship with LiveMusicGuide.com where I write an album review and music news article per week. My employer thinks very highly of me. It's not a bad gig, really. But do I really want to be doing this all my life? (It might have something to do with the fact that I haven't reviewed any really great albums. But who knows? More uncertainty!) And do I have the strength to put up with all this hard news crap in the meantime?
So I've tossed around the ideas of changing majors (or adding one). Psychology and English keep coming up. Psych because I want to eradicate eating disorders, English because I love writing and reading and talking about books far too much. But it's crazy hard to get a job in English unless you're teaching, and I don't teach. And Psych...who knows if I'll like it?
That's the main question, isn't it? "Who knows if I'll like [any given career field]?" Right now, my plan is to keep the journalism major through my first semester of sophomore year. By that point, I'll have taken the notoriously brutal Journalism 201, in which journalism majors do work in quite literally every aspect of every field of journalism--print, broadcast, you name it. I feel like that class will show me whether I'm really cut out for this or not.
I was at a journalism career fair on Monday. An NPR worker named Corey Dade had a very inspiring speech. He said at one point, roughly, that if you're not REALLY into journalism, it's stupid to waste your time in the field. Well, I don't know how into it I am. But really, do I want to waste three semesters of college if I take JOUR201 and find out that I hate it?
Also, why do journalism majors get so much hate? No, it's not a math and science major. No, I'm not burdened by mounds of homework that has no practical relevance. But at least some acknowledgment that my major isn't a waste of time would be appreciated. I'm still not even sure what I'm doing in college. Forgive me for experimenting a bit.
Forgive me also for my ramblings...I'm sure this sounds incredibly petty and stupid. But if nothing else, I'm getting this off my chest.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
college. yeah.
Posted by Mike at 8:06 PM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
You're going into journalism because it's something you love. It's why I'm attempting to make women's studies into a double major instead of a major/minor situation. We do it because we think we can change the world and make it a better place by getting pieces of paper at the end of four years.
And seriously? I'm a history major. I get asked the same sort of things all the time. I don't know what I want to do either, but that's not stopping me from figuring out what I love. People in different fields are never going to truly understand your field. It just happens.
Take intro courses-it'll help you decide if you're in a subject matter that you want to further persue or that you wish you never thought of. It helps.
Good luck with all your scheduling and internal debating stuff, and remember that you can always bounce ideas off of me and recieve 100% brutal honesty!
The thing is, I don't yet know if journalism's something I love. If I knew what I loved and what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I would be a lot happier with this situation.
As far as Journalism goes, I don't know if I'll ever really love it. It's very stressful, irregular, and hard to find comfort and joy in at times. I could end up doing a job I hate for the rest of my life just to pay the bills.
So I picked up English as a second major. So in the future, I'll come home from a really crappy job and write and hopefully get things published. I tried out narrative nonfiction, and I love it. Your career doesn't have to be the driving force in your life. We are people of many things, not just jobs.
Point is: I'm double majoring so that I can a) pay the bills, even if I won't love it and b) fulfill what I'm driven to do in life, even if it won't pay the bills.
That's the nice thing about college. You can learn things that will help you make money and things that probably won't help you make money, all for about the same amount of money and time. Experiment and don't be afraid to be both harshly practical and wildly optimistic. At least...try to. :)
Post a Comment