Have we not all been told since we were young that we could be whatever we wanted to be? Why is it that this idea is blatantly contradicted when it comes time to finding a proper profession?
I have always had a passion for music ever since I was a little child. Even though I was in many different facets of music that increase my potential to create it, the thought of being a musician had never even crossed my mind, for it was conditioned within me to realize I most likely wouldn’t make it. Even at the collegiate level, in my sophomore year at SMU, I was told in my advising meeting that I would not be a marketing major because, “you would never get a job. If you want to get a job, you are either going to be an accounting major or a finance major.”
At the time, I didn’t even know a damn thing about finance, but I knew I hated accounting, and now here I am a finance major as a senior. The point of me babbling on about myself is the fact that you and I have most likely been through very similar situations.
Since when has education been the sole means to the end of production? Why is it that we assume the only reason we are in school is to make money? I don’t know about you, but if I had the choice to go to school or not, even with no benefit to finding ways to acquire money, I would still spend my time acquiring knowledge. The benefit of education is the expansion of perspective and the increasing of rational understanding. Education brings us to the goal of the old proverb: it helps us to learn how to fish, to be able to make the world what you will by understanding what it is.
As a society, we feel so righteous for killing the potential of children and peers, for we have been touched by the monetary Christ and know his goodwill to get the right amount of assets on the balance sheet of his realm.
The next time you are asked, “What are you going to for a living?” Respond with, “Just that. So do you ignorantly serve for the unknown life of another?” Our goal should be earn some serenity, harmony, equilibrium and flourishing.
These are all completely subjective, so why is it that we have decided one objective formula, “The American Dream” applies to the entire world? We were told as children to color outside the lines to express individual creativity only to have the crayon replaced with a pencil.
Why do we always say “the real world” to articulate the work force, as if we exist in this little safe haven void of the experiences of what is real?
I have spent the last 17 years of my life preparing for this real world; all to find it was only the real world I had chosen not to see.
So what do we do for a living? Live and watch mindless followers make circles drawn indifferently.
Charlie is a senior majoring in finance.