Taking time

Image by: Alex Choi

The amount of pressure that exists to select a career as early as possible is frustrating. Shouldn’t the enjoyment and experience of life be a priority over kick-starting your profession as early as possible?

There isn’t nearly enough emphasis put on the importance of taking the time to figure out a fulfilling, lifelong career you’ll be happy with.

Parents, schools and workplaces should realize that it can take some prolonged navigation to finally figure out what it is you want in your career. It’s unrealistic to expect increasingly younger students to have this deciphered.

I started to feel pressure in school to decide my career path in grade 10 — I still haven’t decided what that will be.

Of course, there’s some validity to the importance of finding a secure job that will provide financial support. But, we shouldn’t value money over fulfillment.

A recent article in the Globe and Mail highlights the difficulty of finding a balance for Canadians putting work before their personal lives. The younger generation is having fewer children, prioritizing work. The pressure to decide on a career appears more and more prematurely.

I’ve always chased after secure jobs — until now.

I hate the idea of being slotted into one box for the majority of my life, yet that seems to be what employers look for. It can be a dreary image.

I plan on exploring my interests in the hopes that I will find a satisfying career rather than being trapped in a singularly limiting profession. This too delivers another problem. Like any other human being, I have many interests and I’m overwhelmed by the infinite variety of careers.

In my experience, some of the most interesting and fulfilled people still have no idea what they want to do.

Although it may go against our instincts, perhaps we need to put an end to the popular career mindset. Maybe it’s too idealistic, but, at the end of the day, I want to know I’ve found a fulfilling career.

Carling is a Copy Editor at the Journal.

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