UNITED STATES—Oh college, I remember those good ole days America, I remember being fresh out of high school, heading to a Big Ten university to pursue my undergraduate studies and trying to determine what I wanted to major in. There is a multitude of majors to decide from, but I will never forget people telling me to select a major where one could make money. Also it doesn’t help that universities during orientation would allow another student who might have been a sophomore, junior or maybe a senior (I honestly cannot remember), help set a student’s schedule.
Sorry, but that is something that should be assigned to an academic advisor. Why? They can pull from the student what it is he or she really wants to do. Whereas, those students are simply guides who are getting paid to do what they do; they don’t fully care if you ask me. With that said, I was nearly certain going into my freshman year in college that I wanted to major in journalism. After a semester of journalism courses, that immediately and I mean immediately changed.
I switched my major to English and it was the best thing I could have ever done, with a minor in Film Studies. Why? It was something I was passionate about; it was something that brought me happiness. I was not thinking about money at the time that I made that decision, I was focused on having the opportunity to pursue a career where I actually get to do something that not only was I good at (writing, and being creative at it), but something that fulfilled me in a way that I cannot describe with words even if I wanted to.
Entering my sophomore year I started taking courses within my major that just placed the biggest smile ever on my face. You mingle and you converse and talk with people, who have similar likes like you. With that said, I graduated with a degree in English, a minor in Film Studies and ultimately a Master’s Degree in Sociology. Some of you might be asking me why this matters, it’s because my nephew recently asked me what major he should decide upon as a college undergraduate. Of course, my first question was “What is it that you want to do?” That seems like a loaded question because people will always tell you something, but it’s not their true intent.
I know my nephew pretty well, and this is a savvy guy; he likes money and he’s a negotiator, so it immediately popped into my head that Business or Business Management is the right major for him. He thought Advertising, and while that is a great degree to have you really have to have a keen interest for it and a knack for being able to sway people in a way that those in business cannot always do. He noted Marketing and I thought to myself for a second, that’s a good degree to have because it’s multifaceted.
It was explained to him whatever he decides, to make sure it’s something you are passionate about, because you don’t want to be in a situation, where you are constantly switching majors and having to take more and more classes to fulfill university requirements because you couldn’t make up your mind in regards to what you wanted to accomplish. I’m a believer passion always reigns supreme over money. Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist country where money dictates a lot of our behavior. I’m a firm believer you can make money doing anything you do, you just have to be smart about your approach to market and ensure people are aware of your capabilities and skill set.
There is NO QUESTION in my mind that I was put on this Earth to be a filmmaker. I’ve tried to wrap my mind around it a trillion different ways and it always returns to the one thing that delivers excitement that nothing else does and it just provides me a level of peace that I don’t get anywhere else. It just doesn’t happen. My mind flourishes thinking about cinema, and ideas that are spiraling in my head. I’m never giving up on that goal and I write daily, I just keep those things under wraps because I’m a guarded person, I don’t like people all in my business so I like to keep things close to the chest.
However, I know in a heartbeat if the opportunity presented itself where I could be filming my own movie or a major studio shows an investment in a script I wrote I’d drop everything in my life and take that opportunity as if it might never happen again. Why? It literally might not ever happen again. I am indeed a firm believer that in life everything happens for a reason, but remember you can have all the money in the world, but if you’re not happy or you don’t have anyone to share it with, what is the purpose of all that money?
Are you speechless? If so that says a lot about the decisions you’ve made, and you might want to begin to redirect that energy to focus on something that brings you that happiness and inner peace that perhaps you thought was not attainable. Everything is attainable; it’s up to you to figure out what it is.
